Processo de transformação termoquímica da torta do mesocarpo do dendê para obtenção de biocombustíveis

Currently the productive chain of oil palm as been expanding rapidly in the northern region of Brazil, causing a large production of solid and liquid wastes. The use of this material as biomass for the production of biofuels through thermal processing is one of the viable alternative for reducing the environmental impact and enhancing the productive chain of oil palm. Among these, there is the oil palm mesocarp cake (OPMC) which represents approximately 25% w/w of the fruit. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the temperature on the characteristics of the products obtained through thermochemical transformations of the OPMC. The experiments have been carried out at temperatures between 150 and 550oC by using a 7.5 cm diameter and 10 cm height stainless steel reactor, with volumetric capacity of 440 cm³ and heated by 1.5 kW electrical resistance. The analysis showed that the OPMC is a lignocellulosic material with 45% of cellulose, 21% of hemicellulose and 34% of lignin, and with calorific value of 22.5 MJ/kg. The results show that the liquid and gas yields increase with the operation temperature, while the solid product decrease. The liquid products formed showed a similarity in the composition for the different operation temperatures, but the solids had a significant increase in the fixed carbon content with the temperature. In the solid products, the highest rate of degradation of hemicellulose and cellulose occurred in temperatures up to 250 oC, with prevalence of lignin in the products obtained at highest temperatures.