Pyrolysis of cashew nutshells: Characterization of products and energy balance

Javier Ábrego, Daniel Plaza, Francisco Luño, María Atienza-Martínez and Gloria Gea

Energy, 2018, vol. 158, issue C, 72-80

Abstract: Cashew cultivation leads to the generation of large amounts of nutshells. In order to determine whether pyrolysis could be a suitable method for the valorization of this agricultural residue, cashew nutshells (CNS) from Burkina Faso were pyrolyzed in the temperature range between 400 and 600 °C in a laboratory-scale fixed bed reactor. The solid, liquid and gaseous fractions were quantified and characterized, with special focus on the solid product. Recovery of the cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) was accomplished during pyrolysis separately from the pyrolysis liquid. Results suggest that, except for the aqueous fraction, all the products obtained from pyrolysis are suitable for fuel purposes, and that part of the CNSL can be recovered below 200 °C during the heating process. A preliminary energy balance of the process shows that burning the gases can provide the energy necessary for the process at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C.

Keywords: Cashew nutshell; Pyrolysis; Carbonization; Charcoal; CNSL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544218310648
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:158:y:2018:i:c:p:72-80

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.06.011

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().