A fibra de coco como matéria-prima para a produção de pellets: caracterização de umidade e cinzas

Abstract

This work is about the production of coconut fiber pellets in Brazil: the importance of developing fuels based on organic waste, the production process, the cost of production and the characterization of moisture and ashes. The impacts caused by the exploitation of wood, the main pellet raw material, were investigated and the environmental damage derived was verified. In this perspective, the reuse of organic waste, natural raw materials such as bagasse, lumps, bark and fiber represents a technical, financial and environmental feasibility, since the cost of production analysis emphasized the fact that the raw material represents 56.67% of the distribution of the total cost of production. The small-scale pellet production process was carried out in the laboratory respecting the following steps: extraction of the fibers of a dry coconut, milling in medium-sized ball mill for 1 hour, manual sieving in a 20 mesh Tyler sieve, compacting the pellets in the manual hydraulic press through a steel mold of 8 mm in diameter, applying a pressure of 1 tf. Coconut fiber pellets passed through two laboratory tests to determine moisture content and ash content. The experimental apparatus was performed in triplicate for each characterization in order to minimize systematic errors. The work was done with 2 g of the granulate at each test. After drying the sample, in the case of determination of the moisture content and calcination of the sample in the case of determination of the ash content, a percentage of humidity of 6.9% was obtained, that satisfies the values limits of ANPEP's ENplus manual, besides proving technical, financial, environmental and commercial viability. As for ash content of 53.9%, waste generation is anticipated, which increases the need for maintenance and would result in higher fuel price.