Sunflower by-products for energy needs – fuel characteristics
We have written a lot about the fact that the usage of agrobiomass in energy in Ukraine is an extremely promising area. Huge resources of an agrarian country, in particular agricultural waste, can be used to meet energy needs. On the SAF platform, relevant material from our experts was published.
The energy characteristics of stalks, heads, husk of sunflower, and oilcake are given in table[1].
We will remind you, that in general, sunflower by-products can be considered as lignocellulosic raw material that can be processed into solid, liquid, and gaseous biofuels. The content of cellulose in the stalks is 34-42%, hemicellulose – 19-33%, lignin – 12-30%. For biogas and bioethanol production, sunflower stalks and heads must be pretreated to destroy the lignocellulosic structure. After that, up to 214 m3 of methane can be obtained from 1 t d.m. of sunflower heads, and up to 154 m3 of methane or 101.4 l of bioethanol from 1 t d.m. of sunflower stalks.
The comparison of fuel characteristics of sunflower stalks with straw, corn stalks, and wood chips is given in the table below.
It should be noted that fuel characteristics of the by-products determine the use of specialized heating equipment. Therefore, it is important that the equipment manufacturer confirms the possibility of burning such biomass and biofuels produced from it.
[1] D. Duca, G. Toscano, G. Riva, C. Mengarelli, G. Rossini, A. Pizzi, A. Del Gatto, E. Foppa Pedretti Quality of residues of the biodiesel chain in the energy field, Industrial Crops and Products Volume 75, Part A, 2015, 91-97.
The Bioenergy Association of Ukraine since 2019 is a partner of the platform of sustainable agribusiness SAF Ukraine.
