Biorefinery in the agro-food industry: waste reuse to produce new chemical compounds and biohydrogen

• Grant number: 14/05176-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2014
• End date: February 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Forster Carneiro
• Grantee: Lucas Augusto Abrucezze Ruas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 11/19817-1 - Biorefinery in agricultural and food industry: recycling waste for production of new chemicals componds and biohydrogen, AP.BIOEN.JP

Abstract

Waste recycling technologies to produce new products with energy recovery are emerging as an efficient and economically viable alternative with a great potential in terms of production and market value. Sub/supercritical hydrolysis and gasification are among these emerging technologies. Recent research indicates that supercritical fluid technology is economically viable when compared with thermal gasification due to high solubility of the components of biomass in supercritical water generating a gas cleaner (no tar and pitch) and the highest concentration of bio-hydrogen. The challenge of this technology is the optimization of operating parameters involved in the process to maximize the effect of temperature and pressure. In this project a new line of research is proposed to develop new products with high added value chemicals from the waste of food industry in the context of industrial units known as biomass biorefineries. This will be achieved by integrating two emerging technologies, hydrolysis and gasification with subcritical/supercritical water. Extensive tests with different operating parameters will be needed, as well as determination of gas composition and the performance of different wastes (soy, sugarcane, peanuts and tomatoes wastes). This project proposes the production of a clean gas with high bio-hydrogen concentration at lower temperatures (subcritical conditions, 200-374°C) seeking the reduction of production costs of sub /supercritical gasification at large scale.