Evaluation of the physicochemical and thermogravimetric properties of three Peruvian biomasses for their energetic use

Abstract

Peru has a growing production of agricultural crops such as cocoa, sugarcane, and oil palm, which generates a large amount of agricultural waste. Only in the 2017 there was a combined production of 5.2 million tons of lignocellulosic waste, which is mostly left in the crop field, causing environmental and health problems. We performed the elemental analysis (content of C, H, N, O, S), proximate (moisture, volatile matter, ash and fixed carbon), chemical (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and thermogravimetric. High heating value, pH and the IR spectrum of three agricultural biomasses (sugarcane bagasse, empty fruits bunches of oil palm and cocoa pod husks), was also measured. The biomasses evaluated have small values of nitrogen and sulfur, elements that are precursors of NOx and SOx when thermochemical conversion processes occur. The values reported for the elemental and proximate analysis and for the higher calorific value are consistent with previous studies. The results indicate that the sugarcane bagasse and empty fruits bunches of oil palm are suitable for processes such as pyrolysis or gasification, the cocoa pod husks have a high ash content that makes it difficult to use them as a load for those processes.