Contribution to identifying suitable valorization routes of residual banana biomass : towards a greener chemicals and renewable energy vectors production
(2019)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Gerin, Patrick
- Abstract
- Banana intensive production in tropical countries generates significant amount of post-harvest organic residues such as peduncles, bulbs and peels, which can be a potential source of environmental and health burdens, due to both the lack of suitable treatment methods and the rapid degradation kinetics of these residues under tropical climate. The ambition of this thesis was to put into perspective the opportunities of valorizing banana residual biomass as a renewable source of bio-based products, through the investigation of bioconversion processes. This thesis shows that anaerobic digestion, acidogenic fermentation and ethanolic fermentation can suitably convert residual banana biomass into biomethane, bioethanol and short chain carboxylates like acetic, butyric and caproic acids. The biochemical methane potential of peduncles, bulbs and peels range from 194 to 304 ml_CH4/g_DM. For the lignocellulosic-rich peduncles, we demonstrated that it is possible to combine the recovery of both useful fibers and biomethane through anaerobic digestion. Acidogenic fermentation of the glucan-rich bulbs allowed to achieve carboxylate concentrations up to 8 gCOD/kgmixed_liquor and substrate-to-carboxylate conversion yield up to 0.39 gCOD_carboxylate/gCOD_bulb. Steam cracking pretreatment at 120°C allowed to increase the conversion yield from 0.39 to 0.69 gCOD_carboxylates/gCOD_bulb. The energy derived from bulbs-to-bioethanol conversion was assessed to 80 GWh_EtOH/year, corresponding to 1.6% of the Cameroon annual transportation requirement. The energy derived from anaerobic digestion of all available residues from the export dessert banana was assessed to 390 GWh_CH4/year, and could cover about 3% of the annual electricity consumed in Cameroon, i.e., a supply of electricity to an additional 7 × 105 people. An integrated process was proposed to simultaneously valorize the various banana residues in different valuable products.
- Affiliations
Citations
Awedem Wobiwo, F. (2019). Contribution to identifying suitable valorization routes of residual banana biomass : towards a greener chemicals and renewable energy vectors production. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/59076