A influência da umidade no poder calorífico da biomassa de coco babaçu

Abstract

The great energy demand and the need to produce more energy with alternative fuels is increasing more and more in the present day. In this context, biomass of babassu coconut is a viable alternative to traditional projects. Due to the in natura mode in which the coconut is supplied to the sectors that use it as biomass in steam generators, the moisture content becomes a point of attention, especially in the periods of greatest rainfall in the region where the research was carried out. The objective of this work was to characterize the variability of the heating value of babassu coconut in relation to the moisture content, analytically demonstrating the impact caused by moisture and allowing a better basis in the proposed actions to solve the problem. The characterization of the residues occurred through the immediate analysis of the High Heating Value, which were governed by the standards of ABNT NBR 6923 (2011), 8112 (2003), 8633 (2012) and 6922 (2003). The methodology was based on drying the in natura biomass in a greenhouse and then burning it in a muffle according to the desired analysis; for the higher heating value a calorimetric pump was used. The results validated the assertion that heating value and humidity correlated in an inversely proportional way, and allowed us to cross the information acquired in the laboratory analyzes with the historical basis, where 8.4% reduction in heating value was reached in different periods of the year, which represented a difference of up to 2.1 MJ / kg in the lower heating value of babassu coconut for those periods. Still taking into account the historical data of the company under study, this fall in the heating value in the rainy season represented an increase of 259 tons in the consumption of biomass and in relation to the average of the other months of the year