Use of fly and bottom ashes from the energetic valorisation of peanut shells, as raw material for the ceramic industry.

Abstract

The industries of the peanut-producing region, after their primary harvesting and subsequent processing, accumulate as a waste from this process a large volume of peanut shells, which have begun to be burned in order to take advantage of them for energy production. The inorganic residues originated in this biomass-energy process, are fly or fine ash and bottom or coarse ash, and do not have an effective use at the moment, so it is proposed to establish the feasibility of its reuse as raw material for manufacturing ceramic materials. In addition to the need to resolve the current final disposal of these inorganic secondary waste from a purely environmental perspective, it is proposed to value these wastes as a raw material for the construction industry, and to involve the concept of circular economy in the development of this work, and all the benefits associated with its application through tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint among others.