Agro-industrial banana wastes applied in biogas production: evaluation of thermal pre-treatment in alkaline hydrolysis

• Grant number: 24/10977-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Imaculada Maintinguer
• Grantee: Larissa Ayumi Yamamoto
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisa em Bioenergia (IPBEN). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/22401-8 - Fruit-refinery: obtention processes, characterization methods and generation of products derived from residues of the fruitculture, AP.TEM

Abstract

According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Brazil rankedthird as the world's largest banana producer in 2022. Thus, the production of this fruithas become one of the prominent segments in the fruit growing and agribusinesssector.During banana processing, a large amount of organic waste is generated and, as itis an environmental liability, this waste is responsible for increasing productioncosts.Furthermore, many trades have disposed of such ripe fruits with peel in landfills.In this sense, one of the methods that can be used to reuse such waste would be itsapplication for the production of biogas from anaerobic biological processes.Theproduction of biogas from waste from national fruit farming can be more efficient withthe application of thermal pre-treatment in alkaline hydrolysis, with the aim of breakingthe lignocellulosic walls and thus obtaining higher releases of carbohydrates.Therefore,this project will evaluate thermal pre-treatment in alkaline hydrolysis, on residues frombanana processing, aiming for higher efficiencies in the generation of biogas inanaerobic batch reactors.Concomitantly with the production of methane biogas, there is an alternative solution tothe problem of disposing of this organic matter and the valorization of the biorefinery,due to the importance of the byproducts. Furthermore, the present work aims to expandthe literature, currently scarce, on the energy use of fruit growing residues from thenational agroindustry.Keywords: methane, anaerobic reactors, alkaline hydrolysis, organic waste, nationalfruit growing.