Bioenergetic valorization of <i>Sargassum fluitans</i> in the Mexican Caribbean: The determination of the calorific value and washing mechanism

Abstract

&lt;abstract&gt; &lt;p&gt;The advent of large volumes of &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum sp&lt;/italic&gt;. on the Mexican Caribbean coast has become an emerging issue for the Mexican population. The most frequent action is harvesting, but a correct treatment or energy recovery strategy is still missing. This work aimed to evaluate the energy potential of &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum fluitans&lt;/italic&gt;, through elemental calculations and direct measurements, considering the effect of its washing. The calorific value determined by the direct method was 9.24 ± 0.28 MJ/kg and 12.64 ± 0.18 MJ/kg for dirty and washed &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum&lt;/italic&gt;, respectively. The washing effect increased the calorific values in &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum fluitans&lt;/italic&gt; by 36.80%. The washing effect increased the calorific values determined by indirect methods, increasing 10.10% and 41.04%, each method, respectively. The content of toxic metals was lower in both materials than that established for non-woody biomass from energy use, concerning the ISO 17225:2014 standard. The unit energy cost of &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum fluitans&lt;/italic&gt; is ＄0.007 and ＄0.011 per MJ for dirty and washed conditions, respectively. Finally, the results of this work indicate that the &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum&lt;/italic&gt; wash provides better characteristics to be considered an alternative fuel option in combustion systems such as thermo-electric plants (based on carbon), sugar mills, and cement kilns with co-processing of solid waste. Attending from a bioenergetic approach, &lt;italic&gt;Sargassum's&lt;/italic&gt; emerging seasonal problem affects the Mexican Caribbean coast.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/abstract&gt;

Breathing Planet Earth: Analysis of Keeling’s Data on CO2 and O2 with Respiratory Quotient (RQ), Part I: Global Respiratory Quotient (RQGlob) of Earth

“…For different sea weeds, ref. [69] In terms of energy units, the total annual primary biomass production on earth (including food, fiber, etc.) is estimated at 1260 EJ/year [97].…”

“…For different sea weeds, ref. [69] presents ultimate analyses; the author determined all of the empirical chemical formulae. Also, Sargassum for Sp 1 and Sp 2 assumes YS = 0; further, for Sp.…”

“…(iii) Oceanic cyanobacteria and algae: photosynthesis and respiration, RQ = 0.77[37].2.Seaweed or Sargassum: A bright seaweed also absorbs CO 2 and produces O 2, but it reflects more of the sun's radiation compared to PP. Using the ultimate analyses reported in[7,69], the chemical formula on the UCF basis is given as CH 1.74 N 0.025 O 1.42 S 0.…”

“…It serves as a good CO 2 sink but decomposes and releases NH 3 and H 2 S (odors like rotten eggs) along with CO 2 . For different seaweeds, Ref [69]. presents ultimate analyses; the author determined the chemical formula and estimated that the RQ of seaweeds could vary from 0.95 to 1.34 (Appendix A.1).The measured RQ values are from 0.99 to 2.38 (or PQ from 0.42 to 1.01), while the theoretical values are from 0.77 to 1 (PQ from 1.0 to 1.3)[70].3.4.…”

Aspen plus simulation of sargassum for quality synthesis gas

“…In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the importance of using biomass as a potential bioenergy resource; In the case of sargassum in the Mexican Caribbean, only bioenergetics valorization studies have been carried out [ 28 ]. With the HHV data obtained from this work, it is possible to interpret the bioenergetic potential of sargassum to be used and contribute to the optimization and use of this residue as a resource to generate value, in addition to reducing the primary problems generated by it.…”