Renewable Energy from Beach-Cast Seaweed: Calorific Power Heating Studies with Macroalgae
Some stretches of the Brazilian coast are regularly subject to a natural process of macroalgae deposition. In urban beach areas, public institutions responsible for cleaning collect this biomass and dispose of it in landfills. When this biomass is exposed to the sun for a long time in the littoral area, a decomposition process begins and causes greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere. Macroalgae biomass is a natural resource that could be used for renewable energy, contributing to meeting the growing demand for low environmental impacts of energy, indicating the possibility of participating in sustainable development. The objective of this research was to evaluate the energetic potential of macroalgae biomass deposited on the Maceió coast; specifically, the combustion capacity of aggregate biomass and pellet biofuel produced with macroalgae. The research, which analysed 13 species, proceeded using a calorimetric pump methodology to determine the power heating value and a mass spectrophotometer to determine the available energetic chemical elements. The result of 8.82 MJ/Kg was similar to the main biomass used in Brazil, the sugarcane bagasse, evaluated at 8.91 MJ/Kg. Aggregated macroalgae biomass in condensed pellets with energetic composites obtained a value of 4823 Kcal/Kg, 1.2% more than the average of terrestrial biomass pellets. Therefore, these results show possibilities to produce biofuel using thermal energy from marine macroalgae biomass.
Citação
@online{fernando_pinto2025,
author = {Fernando Pinto , Coelho and Everardo Valadares De Sá Barreto
, Sampaio and Márcio Gomes , Barboza and Elica Amara Cecília ,
Guedes-Coelho and Manoel Messias Da Silva , Costa and Emerson Carlos
Soares Da , Silva and Victor Andrei Rodrigues , Carneiro and Bruno
Moreira , Soares and Elvis Joacir De , França and Rômulo Simões
Cezar , Menezes and Cesar Augusto Moraes De , Abreu},
title = {Renewable Energy from Beach-Cast Seaweed: Calorific Power
Heating Studies with Macroalgae},
volume = {14},
number = {7},
date = {2025-03-23},
doi = {10.3390/plants14071005},
langid = {pt-BR},
abstract = {Some stretches of the Brazilian coast are regularly
subject to a natural process of macroalgae deposition. In urban
beach areas, public institutions responsible for cleaning collect
this biomass and dispose of it in landfills. When this biomass is
exposed to the sun for a long time in the littoral area, a
decomposition process begins and causes greenhouse gas emission into
the atmosphere. Macroalgae biomass is a natural resource that could
be used for renewable energy, contributing to meeting the growing
demand for low environmental impacts of energy, indicating the
possibility of participating in sustainable development. The
objective of this research was to evaluate the energetic potential
of macroalgae biomass deposited on the Maceió coast; specifically,
the combustion capacity of aggregate biomass and pellet biofuel
produced with macroalgae. The research, which analysed 13 species,
proceeded using a calorimetric pump methodology to determine the
power heating value and a mass spectrophotometer to determine the
available energetic chemical elements. The result of 8.82 MJ/Kg was
similar to the main biomass used in Brazil, the sugarcane bagasse,
evaluated at 8.91 MJ/Kg. Aggregated macroalgae biomass in condensed
pellets with energetic composites obtained a value of 4823 Kcal/Kg,
1.2\% more than the average of terrestrial biomass pellets.
Therefore, these results show possibilities to produce biofuel using
thermal energy from marine macroalgae biomass.}
}