Posidonia Oceanica is an endemic seagrass of the Mediterranean Sea which forms large underwater meadows. Due to marine currents, the meadows detach from the seabed and arrange in fibrous spherical aggregates, called egagropiles, which accumulate along the coast causing environmental problems. This work proposes the egagropiles of Posidonia oceanica as feedstock to produce butyl levulinate (BL), a promising biofuel having feasible production and good miscibility with gasoline/Diesel. The chemical composition of Posidonia oceanica egagropiles was characterized and the amount of cellulose confirmed their potential as feedstock to produce BL. The reaction was performed under the efficient microwave heating adopting H2SO4 as catalyst. The influence of temperature, time, catalyst amount and biomass loading were studied with the aim of maximizing the BL yield, following the high gravity approach. Once optimised the reaction conditions under microwave heating, the butanolysis was also studied under conventional one to prove the feasible scale-up of the process. Together with BL, a solid residue (char) was produced and characterized to propose its possible employment. In conclusion, the preliminary valorisation of Posidonia oceanica egagropiles to BL has been successfully performed and further studies aiming at the complete biomass exploitation are now in progress.
EXPLOITATION OF THE MARINE WASTE POSIDONIA OCEANICA EGAGROPILES TO BIOFUEL
Sara Fulignati
Primo
;Lorenzo Bonaldi;Domenico Licursi;Nicola Di Fidio;Virginia Menicagli;Elena Balestri;Claudia Antonetti;Anna Maria Raspolli GallettiUltimo
2024-01-01
Abstract
Posidonia Oceanica is an endemic seagrass of the Mediterranean Sea which forms large underwater meadows. Due to marine currents, the meadows detach from the seabed and arrange in fibrous spherical aggregates, called egagropiles, which accumulate along the coast causing environmental problems. This work proposes the egagropiles of Posidonia oceanica as feedstock to produce butyl levulinate (BL), a promising biofuel having feasible production and good miscibility with gasoline/Diesel. The chemical composition of Posidonia oceanica egagropiles was characterized and the amount of cellulose confirmed their potential as feedstock to produce BL. The reaction was performed under the efficient microwave heating adopting H2SO4 as catalyst. The influence of temperature, time, catalyst amount and biomass loading were studied with the aim of maximizing the BL yield, following the high gravity approach. Once optimised the reaction conditions under microwave heating, the butanolysis was also studied under conventional one to prove the feasible scale-up of the process. Together with BL, a solid residue (char) was produced and characterized to propose its possible employment. In conclusion, the preliminary valorisation of Posidonia oceanica egagropiles to BL has been successfully performed and further studies aiming at the complete biomass exploitation are now in progress.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.