article · Biofuels
Agricultural residues including olive pomace, argan shells, date palm seeds, and a hydrochar produced from the hydrothermal carbonisation of olive pomace were assessed to determine their potential as fuels in thermochemical conversion systems. Physicochemical and structural evaluations confirmed that all four materials consist primarily of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Among the tested fuels, the hydrochar exhibited the highest energy content, recording a higher heating value of 27.86 megajoules per kilogram. Thermal degradation and pyrolysis behaviours were analysed under an inert atmosphere, followed by the application of two kinetic models to evaluate activation energy and pre-exponential factors. The kinetic findings revealed that olive pomace requires comparatively lower activation energy to initiate pyrolysis, indicating favourable energetic performance during thermal processing.
Identifying efficient biological residues for clean energy generation helps convert agricultural waste into valuable fuel sources. By detailing the heat content and breakdown behaviour of different biomass types, this research highlights which materials burn or decompose most efficiently, providing the foundational data needed to develop sustainable alternative energy systems.
This work informs developers of thermochemical conversion systems and bioenergy producers seeking viable agricultural feedstocks. The findings indicate that hydrochar from olive pomace offers high energy density, while raw olive pomace decomposes with lower energy inputs. This remains early-stage laboratory characterisation, meaning further applied testing and pilot-scale trials would be required before commercial deployment.
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This paper compares and evaluates the physicochemical characterization and thermal analysis of different agricultural lignocellulosic biomasses namely: olive pomace (OP), argan shells (AS), date palm seeds (DS) and hydrochar (HC), obtained from the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of OP, in order to identify a good potential fuel for thermochemical conversion systems. Several physicochemical and thermal characterization methods were used. The aforementioned biomasses are mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin as shown by the FTIR and XRD analysis. From energy point of view, the hydrochar (HC) has the highest value of the higher heating value (HHV) (27.86 MJ/kg). These results make (HC) a very good candidate for thermochemical energy conversion technologies. Thereafter, thermal analysis (DSC and TGA) was conducted in an inert atmosphere to analyze the thermal behavior of the samples under well-defined thermal conditions. Right after, two kinetics models were used to estimate pyrolysis kinetic parameters (the activation energy (E) and pre-exponential factor (A)) of the four biomasses. Among those are, for example, olive pomace has (E = 200.104 kJ/mol; A = 7.14E + 21 s−1) and (E = 199.053 kJ/mol; A = 3.58E + 21 s−1) according to KAS and FWO models, respectively. Consequently, pyrolysis of (OP) requires less energy to occur, which promotes its energy performances.
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DOI: 10.1080/17597269.2023.2201732
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