Principado de Asturias, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Fuente Alonso, Enrique [0000-0003-3080-5945], Ruiz Bobes, Begoña [0000-0002-4934-4520], Díaz Somoano, Mercedes [0000-0001-7455-2746], Pardo, R., Taboada Ruiz, Luis, Fuente Alonso, Enrique, Ruiz Bobes, Begoña, Díaz Somoano, Mercedes, Calvo, L. F., Paniagua Bermejo, Sergio, Principado de Asturias, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Fuente Alonso, Enrique [0000-0003-3080-5945], Ruiz Bobes, Begoña [0000-0002-4934-4520], Díaz Somoano, Mercedes [0000-0001-7455-2746], Pardo, R., Taboada Ruiz, Luis, Fuente Alonso, Enrique, Ruiz Bobes, Begoña, Díaz Somoano, Mercedes, Calvo, L. F., and Paniagua Bermejo, Sergio
Residual biomass is a valuable and growing by-product, but often underutilized. This research aims to investigate the possible strategies for the energetic valorisation of agri-food industry wastes: grape seed and chestnut shell. Pyrolysis thermal process was the selected for this work. Applied to biomass, pyrolysis is a promising method for the simultaneous production of biochar, bio-oil, and gas. Two different pyrolysis processes were conducted: conventional pyrolysis at 750 °C and flash pyrolysis at 750 °C and 850 °C. Flash pyrolysis yielded superior product properties compared to conventional pyrolysis. The gas obtained through flash pyrolysis presented a four-fold higher high heating value due to increased CH4 and H2 content. Bio-oil contains over 90% of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and calorific value reached up to 32 MJ kg−1 for grape seed, which is 7% more than bioethanol HHV. Biochar can be used both as fuel or as activated carbon precursor due to its high carbon content (91%). Calorific value of chestnut shell biochar (32.7 MJ kg−1), comparable to mineral coals, increased by 72% with respect to the value of this untreated raw material. This work approved the potential of flash pyrolysis as a method to process biomass wastes in a renewable energy scenario.