Adding Value to Sugarcane Bagasse Ash: Potential Integration of Biogas Scrubbing with Vinasse Anaerobic Digestion

Tsai Garcia-Perez, Juvenal Alejandro Ortiz-Ulloa, Lourdes E. Jara-Cobos and Manuel Raul Pelaez-Samaniego ()
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Tsai Garcia-Perez: Department of Applied Chemistry and Systems of Production, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador
Juvenal Alejandro Ortiz-Ulloa: School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
Lourdes E. Jara-Cobos: Department of Applied Chemistry and Systems of Production, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador
Manuel Raul Pelaez-Samaniego: Department of Applied Chemistry and Systems of Production, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: One of the byproducts of sugarcane bagasse combustion in sugarcane mills is sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), which contains up to ~40 mass% of organic matter. Currently, SCBA is partially used as a soil fertilizer. However, SCBA’s poor content of minerals, which are required by soils, restricts its use in soils, resulting in the disposal of large amounts of SCBA in landfills. Alternatively, SCBA has shown promise for some environmental applications such as wastewater treatment, but its use in gas cleaning deserves further study. The objective of this work was to assess the use of as-received SCBA to remove hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) from biogas, thus, to add value to the ash. The experimental procedure consisted of passing biogas containing H 2 S through a column with SCBA and monitoring the H 2 S content inline by employing a gas chromatograph until the concentration of H 2 S, measured after the column, was ~10% of the original concentration. The breakthrough time of the SCBA adsorption curve was ~75% the breakthrough time observed with activated carbon, showing that SCBA could be a cheap alternative to commercial materials that are currently used for biogas scrubbing. This result could positively impact ethanol sugarcane mills that need to clean biogas produced from vinasses, as part of a strategy to integrate biogas production and cleaning operations using low-value residues (i.e., vinasses and ash). SCBA’s capacity for removing H 2 S from biogas results from the presence of K-compounds (e.g., K 2 SiO 3 and K 2 Si 2 O 5 ) on the ash’s surface and its relatively high porosity. Additionally, S-enriched SCBA (due to H 2 S retention) can expectedly be more beneficial to soils than directly adding the ash since S is an essential nutrient for the growth of plants.

Keywords: sugarcane bagasse; ash; biogas scrubbing; hydrogen sulfide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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