Biofuel, Bioenergy and Feed Valorization of By-Products and Residues from Hevea brasiliensis Cultivation to Enhance Sustainability

Andrea Pizzi, Daniele Duca, Giorgio Rossini, Sara Fabrizi and Giuseppe Toscano
Additional contact information
Andrea Pizzi: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Daniele Duca: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Giorgio Rossini: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Sara Fabrizi: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Giuseppe Toscano: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy

Resources, 2020, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: In the latex production chain, rubber tree seeds ( Hevea brasiliensis ) represent an underutilized fraction with high potentialities, which can increase the sustainability of the whole process if rightly valorized. In the present study, the quality of all the fractions obtained from the rubber fruit were evaluated, with the aim to identify possible applications for their valorization with a circular economy perspective. Seeds from five different varieties of rubber tree were analyzed. Furthermore, a whole mass and energy balance was defined, which has allowed us to define hypothetical production scenarios. The obtained results show negligible differences among varieties. Shells and capsules have shown a composition similar to woody biomass, with high heating values (more than 16.5 MJ kg −1 ), low nitrogen content (below 0.5% on weight basis ( w/w )) and reduced ash content (0.51% w/w and 1.90% w/w , respectively). Kernels were chemically extracted comparing two different solvents: n-hexane and ethanol. Both solvents showed similar extraction yields, i.e., 49% w/w and 46% w/w for n-hexane and ethanol, respectively. The resulting extraction flour was characterized by a high protein content (around 40% w/w ) making it suitable for animal feeding. The rubber seed oil could be used in blends of different vegetable oils for biodiesel production. All this information is useful for improving the sustainability of the latex production chain and to assess the sustainability of possible bioenergy value chains.

Keywords: vegetable oil extraction; circular economy; biorefinery; rubber seed variety; biodiesel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/9/9/114/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/9/9/114/ (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:jresou:v:9:y:2020:i:9:p:114-:d:414843

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

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