Agricultural residues are widely studied as feedstocks for renewable materials, chemicals and biofuels. They are vast, inexpensive and can be sustainably collected and processed when associated to appropriate agricultural and industrial practices. However, agricultural residues also have a less honorable characteristic: they are often loaded with mineral impurities. In industrial valorization of agricultural residues, minerals cause several problems, such as sintering and corrosion in boilers as well as wearing out of mechanical equipment. In this work, we take a fresh look at the minerals in bagasse and straw, the vast lignocellulosic feedstocks associated with the sugarcane industry. We employ synchrotron X-ray microtomography and image analysis to learn the typical size, shape, and location of mineral particles adhered to the biomass. Moreover, we employ synchrotron X-ray microfluorescence to investigate the elemental composition of the mineral particles. The results are discussed in terms of soil impregnated in the biomass, tracing relations between the characteristic sizes of the biomass structure, the sizes of the soil particles, and soil mineralogy. With the new insights obtained in this work, we expect to contribute to the development of more efficient ways to clean agricultural residues from their impurities, paving the way for more efficient industrial deployment of novel biomass valorization technologies.

Minerals in sugarcane bagasse and straw as observed by X-ray microtomography and microfluorescence

2019 Spring National Meeting

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