(510m) Evaluation of Catalyzed Pretreatment Processes of Cocoa Biomass Residues for Further Pyrolysis Applications.

Cocoa is a commonly cultivated fruit for the world's chocolate industry. Colombian regions of Orinoquía and Andina are the ones with the highest cocoa production in the country. However, out of 100% of cocoa biomass production, only 20% is destined for producing chocolate. During the last decade, the areas planted with cocoa have increased, thus generating a high amount of biomass residue per unit of chocolate produced. Cocoa farmers use this agricultural waste to fertilize the same crop and animal feeding. But these uses generate problems such as the proliferation of pathogens that affect the cocoa crop and unbalanced animal feeding due to low digestibility. Likewise, zinc sulfate and ferric sulfate catalysts are used for dehydrating, fragmenting, and depolymerizing lignocellulosic materials. This feedstock preprocessing step improves the pyrolysis process to obtain bio-oil. Therefore, this research aims to study the use of these catalysts for pretreating cocoa biomass residues and enhance their usability as a valuable pyrolysis feedstock. Also, the carbonization yield and the synthesis for sulfates were observed. Finally, during the result analysis, the ferric sulfate catalyst showed a high decrease in activation energy and temperature peaks among the zinc sulfate catalyst. Moreover, the carbonization yield was estimated in a range of 30-35%. This experimental analysis represents a new advancement to employ cocoa biomass as a valuable raw material for producing biofuels. Besides, this can help minimize the proliferation of pests in crops, reducing the use of pesticides, and increasing the economic sustainability of farmers.