Analysis of the second burning of the eucalyptus wood residue (RME) produced during the soy oil production process

• Grant number: 18/22820-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Architecture and Urbanism Technology
• Principal Investigator: Jorge Luís Akasaki
• Grantee: Sabrina Pereira da Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The search for new renewable and alternative materials for the most diverse purposes is on the rise, especially for materials that minimize the impact in our environment or produce energy in a sustainable way. Many companies already are self-sustainable and generate their own power in a clean way for their industrial processes. This paper proposes the utilization of eucalyptus wood ash generated by the burning in the production of soy oil at Indústria Cooperativa Agroindustrial dos Produtores Rurais do sudoeste Goiano (COMIGO), located in Rio Verde - GO and founded in 1975. In the industrial processing, eucalyptus wood is burned as an energy source leaving a large amount of fine eucalyptus wood ash. This project proposes to study the ash generated in this process, with the purpose of agglutinating this component with some form of bonding agent and creating specimens with this residue. With these solid specimens this study proposes to burn them once more, generating clean energy for the industrial process and finding a new way to use this resource that is now considered to be waste but contains interesting physical and chemical properties for energy generation with its high carbon content. Some of the bonding agents are already being researched, as is the case of corn and manioc starch, even though others could also be utilized, for instance, synthetic resin and sugar cane bagasse. The research method will consist in the creation of specimens (5x5x5cm) with the ash generated by COMIGO Industries, with the proportion between eucalyptus wood ash, water and corn starch as the bonding agent being determined empirically. This study intends to achieve the production of a new source of energy from a material that would otherwise be discarded and to find an effective process to agglutinate the ashes, achieving a significant output of energy generation by burning the material a second time.