Abstract Lignocellulosic biomass residues can generate interesting materials for the chemical and food industries. Physical activation processes were developed by cold pressing and slow pyrolysis, as well as physical chemical activation with zinc chloride (ZnCl2), to produce bio-based products, including bio-oil (30%) and biochar (31%), with good yields. Charcoal and biooil provided good results, respectively, with regard to adsorption capacity (357 m2 g-1 of surface area BET) and the possibility of extracting chemical compounds (phenols with 45.81% and aldehydes with 32.76%). Moreover, the key economic performance indicators of the process were analyzed, and the results indicate that the proposed process is economically feasible and attractive with $422,416.10 profits. Finally, after dialoguing with the babassu nut breakers and understanding their needs, the feasibility of economically developing the contacted families through technology transfer for extracting the oil, cake, biochar, and bio-oil from babassu coconuts was studied, demonstrating the possibility of income generation based on the profitability achieved in this study.

This work uses new waste feedstock, essential to increase the range of new biomasses, demonstrating experimentally and numerically the economic potential of coconut husk residues to produce renewable biofuels (pyrolytic oil and biochar) through slow pyrolysis. The samples were submitted to a pyrolysis process (500 ºC for 30 min, with a heating rate of 20 ºC min-1, using water vapor as carrier gas), where the biochar and bio-oil yields reached were 31 and 30%, respectively. The main components found in bio-oil were furfural (29.23%), phenol (22.18%), and isoeugenol (10.26%). The surface area values (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Langmuir) found for biochar were greater than 300 m2 g-1 and a micropore volume of 0.11 cm3 g-1. The estimated theoretical energy potential of biochar and bio-oil were 208,107,180 MJ and 190,205,438 MJ, equivalent to 3,729,518.4 tons of coconut husks. Thus, this study brings as a novelty a new feedstock associated with bioprocess technological models that will pave sustainable avenues for the development of biorefineries, offering a sustainable green option to produce bioproducts and bioenergy. In the proposed model, the wastes are valorized using various processes addressing economy.

Abstract: The objective of this work was to obtain, through the tree pruning pyrolysis, coal to be used in the removal of pollutants present in gray waters. The coal obtained during the process was used in a gray water filtration column and dye adsorption test. In this investigation it was proposed the treatment of gray water by the following series steps: (a) coagulation/ flocculation, (b) decantation, (c) sand filtration and (d) coal filtration column. The maximum coal yield was 60.10% obtained at 360 ºC and heating rate of 30 ºC/min. The gray water polishing using the coal obtained from the tree pruning pyrolysis process was efficient in the removal of the studied analytical parameters. For turbidity, COD, total solids and residual chlorine parameters, the removal values were 99, 98, 71 and 100 %, respectively. The charcoal from the filtration column was responsible for removing organ matter of gray water.