Gasification of cannabis waste

PAULA SAIRES; MELISA BERTERO; ULISES SEDRAN

Santa Fe

Workshop; French-Argentinean Workshop on Heterogeneus Catalysis; 2023

Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers, IC2MP, France e INCAPE

Biomass gasification involves its partial thermal oxidation leading to the production ofgaseous and solid products, as well as tar. It is a highly flexible technology to produce cleanenergy, with lower NOx and SOx emissions than those of combustion. The gaseous productscan be used to generate energy and they are also raw materials to produce liquid biofuelsand green chemicals.Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising energy source given its neutrality in the CO2 cycle,high availability and sustainability; moreover, forest and agro-industrial wastes do notcompromise food provision [1].A particular case of residual biomass is that from the obtention of therapeutical productsfrom cannabis, that is, wastes from cropping and conditioning the plants and extracting theactive components. The important and persistent social demands in Argentina about thoseproducts and the increasing scientific and industrial interest, as reflected by Laws 27350 and27669, position our country as a feasible producer of cannabis products. Wastes fromcannabis utilization, which include cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, as well as some othercomponents (e.g. proteins, lipids and inorganic compounds), represent about 80 to 90 %wt.of the plants [2]. These characteristics make them very promising to be used as raw materialsin thermochemical processes.It is interesting, then, to study the gasification of cannabis wastes as a valorizationapproach, as the final disposition of those wastes is regulated by legislation given theircontent of phytocannabinoids, particularly tetrahydrocannabinol THC, the most powerfulpsychoactive component in the plants.