ENERGY CHARACTERIZATION OF MARABÚ

Abstract

Forest biomass marabú (Dichrostachys cinerea) is a wild shrub, that covers a large number of hectares in Cuba and that could become an important source of renewable energy; as biomass was subjected to physical chemical characterization, using specifications techniques of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), and the main points of the pyrolysis process was identified by thermo-gravimetric analysis to evaluate the feasibility of its use as energy source.The study helped to show that this biomass has suitable characteristics for using as an energy source, a heating value = 19100 kJkg-1, 3,4% of ash and a melting temperature of 1460oC and also low in chlorine and sulfur- The thermo-gravimetric analysis pointed out two areas of well-defi ned pyrolysis reaction: the active zone, dominated by the decomposition of hemi-cellulose and cellulose, and the passive one, marked by the lignin decomposition; actually it occurs in a wide range of temperature, lower rate of degradation and overlapping decomposition of the other components. It was also shown a weight loss of 60% for the former.