Bioenergy production for CO2-mitigation and rural development via valorisation of low value crop residues and their upgrade into energy carriers: A challenge for sunflower and soya residues

The present study concerns the energetic valorization of sunflower and soya residues by air fixed-bed gasification. The main process parameters that have been investigated were the temperature and air equivalence ratio. Experimental results indicated that the high temperature and air had a positive effect in gas yield for both residues by ensuring mild oxidative conditions. Gasification gas composition showed different trends of H2/CO ratio for the two residues at low equivalence ratios. The LHV of the produced gas from both residues varied from 6.84 to 12 MJ/Nm3. The energy recovery achieved via gasification could reach 0.07 and 0.02 per acre of cultivated area for the sunflower and soya residues, respectively, in terms of tons of oil equivalent. Sunflower shown higher oil production and energy recovery than soya did. The results of the present study indicate the viability of alternative energy production from agricultural biomass by gasification. Such residues could comprise an attractive renewable source of energy for covering additional energy demands in agricultural regions through exploitation in small gasification systems.