@article{AlviraDobón:47571,
author = "Alvira Dobón, Darío Santiago and Azuara Medel, Manuel
and Manyà Cervelló, Joan J.",
title = "{Adición de catalizadores de bajo coste durante la
pirólisis de alperujo para la mejora de la producción de
biochar y la calidad del gas generado}",
year = "2015",
note = "Two-phase olive mill waste or “alperujo”, an olive oil
sub-product, after being dried goes to the cogeneration of
electric power and thermal energy by means of combustion.
Nevertheless, due to the high quantity of waste produced,
around 4 million tons per year in Spain, and due to
management problems generated by its phytotoxicity and
semi-solid texture, it’s necessary to find alternative
solutions for its management. The current research
considers the slow pyrolysis of this biomass in order to
obtain a high stable biochar, a product that offers some
environmental benefits because of CO2 retention,
improvement or the properties of agricultural soils and
remediation of contaminated soils. With the
thermobalance’s experiments it has been shown that the
final temperature of 600 C is the most optimal to
produce a high stable biochar (high percentage of fixed
carbon and high fixed carbon yield). Furthermore, tests
performed in a pressurized reactor showed a positive effect
of the pressure on the promotion of secondary reactions and
consequently, an increase in the fixed-carbon contained in
the produced char as well as an increase in the pyrolysis
gas yield at the expense of tar production. On the other
hand, it has been studied the addition of alkali (K2CO3)
and alkali earth metals (CaO) for act as catalysts able to
improve the biochar’s properties. A refuse material
coming from a mechanical and biological treatment plant of
municipal solid waste has also been used as additive.
Experimental results indicated that the addition of all
materials, including the refuse material, leads to the
production of biochars with a higher stability as well as a
better composition of the produced gas (higher contents of
hydrogen and methane). Interestingly, the effect of
pressure on pyrolysis results when additives were used was
almost negligible. Hence, the major finding of this work is
that the addition of the additives to the pyrolysis of
olive mill waste leads to more stable biochars even at
atmospheric pressure. In other words, working under
moderate pressure seems to be not necessary in such
conditions resulting in a reduction in costs. In addition,
a new pathway is open in order to valorize a MSW-derived
waste, the management of which is currently a significant
environmental issue.",
}