Valorization of a regional waste employing a modified natural zeolite

NATACHA RODRÍGUEZ; CARLA FERMANELLI; SILVINA VARGAS GIL; ARIEL VINUESA; CLARA SAUX

Congreso; Tercer Congreso en Energía, Eficiencia y Sustentabilidad Ambiental (CEES 2021); 2021

The goal of this study was the valorization and recycling of residual biomass from the agroalimentary industry with the aim of promoting the circular economy. Peanut shells (PS) wereselected as feedstock since they lack value added applications and their abundance and localconcentration make them of easy availability. Considering that clinoptilolite is the most abundantnatural zeolite on Earth, it can be used for the development of low-cost catalysts. In this sense,clinoptilolites were modified by iron (Fe) incorporation and employed as heterogeneous catalystsfor in-situ PS catalytic pyrolysis. The metal was incorporated to the zeolites by ion exchange. Thematerial obtained was extensively characterized by means of X-Ray Diffraction, Infrared FourierTransform Spectroscopy, BET surface area, UV–vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectra and TemperatureProgrammed Reduction. PS pyrolysis and bio-oil upgrade were simultaneously carried out in afixed bed glass reactor at 500 °C, for 10 min. Chemical composition of the bio-oil was assessedby the GC-MS technique. Results showed an important reduction in organic acids’ yield, from 43wt% in thermal runs, to 8 wt% in catalytic runs and a significant increase in selectivity towardsphenols and alcohols; from 14 wt% to 24 wt% and 20 wt% to 27 wt%, respectively.