Biomass Valorization of Walnut Shell for Liquefaction Efficiency

Nives Jovičić, Alan Antonović, Ana Matin, Suzana Antolović, Sanja Kalambura and Tajana Krička
Additional contact information
Nives Jovičić: University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica, 10410 Velika Gorica, Croatia
Alan Antonović: Department of Wood Technology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Ana Matin: Department of Agricultural Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Storage and Transport, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Suzana Antolović: Croatian Conservation Institute, Fakultetska 4, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Sanja Kalambura: University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica, 10410 Velika Gorica, Croatia
Tajana Krička: Department of Agricultural Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Storage and Transport, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Globally, lignocellulosic biomass has great potential for industrial production of materials and products, but this resource must be used in an environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and sustainable manner. Wood and agricultural residues such as walnut shells as lignocellulosic biomass are one of the most affordable and important renewable resources in the world, which can partially replace fossil resources. The overall objective of the research is to provide background information that supports new applications of walnut shells in a biorefinery context and to increase the economic value of these non-wood forest products. This paper presents the properties characterization of liquefied biomass according to their chemical composition. All results were compared to liquefied wood. In this study, the liquefaction properties of five different walnut shell particle sizes were determined using glycerol as the liquefaction reagent under defined reaction conditions. The liquefied biomass was characterized for properties such as percentage residue, degree of liquefaction, and hydroxyl OH numbers. The chemical composition of the same biomass was investigated for its influence on the liquefaction properties. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to determine the liquefaction properties of different particle sizes as a function of their chemical composition, also in comparison with the chemical composition of wood. The study revealed that walnut shell biomass can be effectively liquefied into glycerol using H 2 SO 4 as the catalyst, with liquefaction efficiency ranging from 89.21 to 90.98%.

Keywords: biomass liquefaction; biorefinery; hydroxyl number; lignocellulose biomass; liquefaction degree; residue percentage; walnut shell; wood liquefaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/2/495/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/2/495/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:2:p:495-:d:722128

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().