Exploring a low-cost valorization route for amazonian cocoa pod husks through thermochemical and catalytic upgrading of pyrolysis vapors
Fecha
2023Autor
Versión
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Tipo
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa
Identificador del proyecto
Impacto
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10.1021/acsomega.3c06672
Resumen
Ecuador as an international leader in the production of cocoa beans produced more than 300 000 tons in 2021; hence, the management and valorization of the 2 MM tons of waste generated annually by this industry have a strategic and socioeconomic value. Consequently, appropriate technologies to avoid environmental problems and promote sustainable development and the bioeconomy, especially consideri ...
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Ecuador as an international leader in the production of cocoa beans produced more than 300 000 tons in 2021; hence, the management and valorization of the 2 MM tons of waste generated annually by this industry have a strategic and socioeconomic value. Consequently, appropriate technologies to avoid environmental problems and promote sustainable development and the bioeconomy, especially considering that this is a megadiverse country, are of the utmost relevance. For this reason, we explored a low-cost pyrolysis route for valorizing cocoa pod husks from Ecuador’s Amazonian region, aiming at producing pyrolysis liquids (bio-oil), biochar, and gas as an alternative chemical source from cocoa residues in the absence of hydrogen. Downstream catalytic processing of hot pyrolysis vapors using Mo- and/or Ni-based catalysts and standalone γ-Al2O3 was applied for obtaining upgraded bio-oils in a laboratory-scale fixed bed reactor, at 500 °C in a N2 atmosphere. As a result, bimetallic catalysts increased the bio-oil aqueous phase yield by 6.6%, at the expense of the organic phase due to cracking reactions according to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) results. Overall product yield remained constant, in comparison to pyrolysis without any downstream catalytic treatment (bio-oil ∼39.0–40.0 wt % and permanent gases 24.6–26.6 wt %). Ex situ reduced and passivated MoNi/γ-Al2O3 led to the lowest organic phase and highest aqueous phase yields. The product distribution between the two liquid phases was also modified by the catalytic upgrading experiments carried out, according to heteronuclear single-quantum correlation (HSQC), total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY), and NMR analyses. The detailed composition distribution reported here shows the chemical production potential of this residue and serves as a starting point for subsequent valorizing technologies and/or processes in the food and nonfood industry beneficiating society, environment, economy, and research. [--]
Materias
Aromatic compounds,
Biofuels,
Catalysts,
Plant derived food,
Pyrolysis
Editor
ACS Publications
Publicado en
ACS Omega 2023, 8(40), 37610–37621
Departamento
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Ciencias /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Zientziak Saila /
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
Versión del editor
Entidades Financiadoras
Authors would like to thank the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) and Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam for the financial support provided to develop this contribution. The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/FEDER) are also thanked for providing financial support to the UPNA team (project ref. RTI2018-096294-B-C31). A.C. also thanks the Departamento de Desarrollo Económico del Gobierno de Navarra for the financial support in the “PC036-037 Biovalorización” Project. L.M.G. thanks Banco de Santander and Universidad Pública de Navarra for their financial support under “Programa de Intensificación de la Investigación 2018” initiative. The authors acknowledge the funding from the Aragón Government (ref. T22_17R), cofunded by FEDER 2014-2020 “Construyendo Europa desde Aragón”. K.H. thanks the Universidad Pública de Navarra for the predoctoral aid awarded by the UPNA to do her PhD thesis.