Abstract
The banana culture wastes, leaf and pseudostem, can be used to produce briquettes as fuel for energy generation. The northern region of the Santa Catarina State in Brazil, more precisely in the Joinville city, presents a significant production of bananas, with a harvest of 24,300 t (2010/2011), with 900 hectares of planted area. From the total of harvested bananas 1.5 t of leaves and 2.5 t of pseudostem are generated per ton of produced banana. In this context, this article presents the preparation steps and characterization of banana wastes (leaves and pseudostem) for the production of briquettes. The wastes and briquettes were evaluated by chemical analysis, high heating value (HHV) as well as by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). It was also evaluated the mechanical compressive strength of the briquettes. The moisture content in the wastes for briquetting must be between 8 and 15 %. The banana leaves and pseudostem showed carbon contents of 43.28 % and 38.92 %. The HHV of the leaves was approximately 17.10 MJ/kg and of the pseudostem it was about 13.70 MJ/kg. Under combustion, the wastes showed maximum release of energy at approximately 580 °C and briquettes at 300 °C. The briquettes of pseudostem and leaves presented compressive strength of 15 MPa and 5.3 Mpa, respectively. The thermal properties and physicochemical characteristics of these wastes demonstrate that they are potential candidates to produce briquettes as fuel in several applications.
