Abstract

(Introduction):  Latin America has extensive wetland areas of international importance, since these wetlands preserve wildlife, acting as a source and purifier of water; protecting us from floods, droughts, and other environmental disasters. However, these wetlands are threatened by eutrophication and aquatic weeds, such as the water lily in La Presa, La Vega, Jalisco, Mexico.

(Objective):  The present investigation provides an alternative for the sustainable management of the water lily (Eichhornia crassipes) by obtaining biochar and its evaluation.

(Methodology):  A functional prototype of a solar pyrolysis reactor was developed, running 36 tests to pyrolyze water lily samples with 17-23% humidity, applying a 5 in Hg vacuum at different temperatures (170, 200 and 230 ºC) and residence times (120, 150, 180 and 210 min); finding the best yield of biochar by the response surface method.

(Results):  The optimal conditions in the reactor were found at 170 ºC, with a residence time of 171.8 min. The biochar presented a calorific value of 17.56 MJ/kg, 20.11 % by weight of fixed carbon and 6.89 C/H (carbonhydrogen) ratio.

(Conclusions):   This proposal provides evidence for a new solar pyrolytic reactor that processes water lily to produce high calorific biochar or to fix carbon, which could be a solution to one of the effects of eutrophication.

Keywords: Bioenergy; biomass; charcoal; solar energy; wetlands