NUNES, B. R. P.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/7697366969624190; NUNES, Bruno Rafael Pereira.
Resumo:
For economic, geopolitical and environmental reasons the world attention turned to
alternative sources of energy. National initiatives include the development of new
technologies based on lignocellulosic biomass, thus allowing for its use as feedstock in
the process of production of bioethanol. Due to the difficulty encountered in the
fermentation, because of the appearance of inhibitors during hydrolysis, this work aims
at studying the use of clays occurring in the state of Paraiba, bentonite and vermiculite,
to adsorb furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural, inhibitors present in the liquor
hydrolyzed. Preliminary tests were conducted using natural and organophilic
vermiculite clays and light green and justina bentonite clays. During this testing was
measured the amount of adsorbate at the beginning and end of the tests using a
spectrophotometer at 284 nm, so that these values could calculate the amount of each
inhibitor adsorbed (q) and removed (%R) for each clay. It was observed that the clays
and organophilic natural vermiculite adsorbed larger amounts of furfural that bentonite
clays, 22.95 and 13.36 (mg / g), respectively. New experiments were performed with
these clays using the tool as 2² factorial design with three replications at the central
point, aiming to evaluate the influence of pH and adsorbent mass for the adsorption
capacity q (mg/g) and removal (%R), where was observed a need to use a star planning,
since was influence of the curvature. It was also noted that regardless of the clay used
was obtained similar amounts of adsorbed inhibitor, showing that the use of natural
vermiculite becomes more feasible, since the achievement of organophilic vermiculite
requires more procedures. During the realization for experiments from the star planning
, using natural vermiculite, was followed by the kinetic of the process for the analyzing
the behavior of the concentration of inhibitors over time, where we found, in most
experiments, a greater decrease in opening minutes followed by a region of stability,
about 30 minutes, and an increase in concentrations in the final minutes. After the
completion of planning there was the influence of the factors studied in the adsorption
of furfural and HMF and it was concluded that under this analysis, the adsorbent mass
has influence only on the amount adsorbed (q) inhibitors for the clay used And that the
pH did not influence this process in any response. The amount of inhibitor removed by
adsorbents studied is low when compared with other methods, but its combination with
some of these methods can produce better results.