Balanço de massa e energia da produção de placa polimérica reforçada com fibra de coco

Abstract

The processing of residues, with a view to obtaining raw materials, is in line with the concept of circular economy and can make it possible to reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions and negative environmental impacts associated with the disposal of these residues since these materials can replace others of satisfactorily. In this way, considering the amount of residues from coconut consumption, it is imperative to find alternative uses for the amount of post-consumption coconut mass discarded irregularly on the Brazilian coast, or even from industrial processes for removing edible material from the coconut fruit. From this awareness of the recycling of post-consumption green coconut, work has emerged that highlighted the possibility of extracting the fibers from the fruit, which can be used in various applications, as a raw material in polymeric plates in the condition of reinforcing agents. However, the objective is to verify if the processes necessary for the processing of post-consumption green coconut in order to obtain fibers do not compromise the technical, environmental and economic viability of this raw material, considering it as a raw material in the production of a polymeric plate of Poly (lactic acid) PLA resin. Based on the methodology of the life cycle assessment (LCA), the mass and energy balance of the processes involving the processing of post-consumer coconut waste, the production of the composite and the making of the polymeric plate was carried out, in order to allow the quantification of the flows that make up the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of this production chain, which allowed to verify that the Embedded Energy (EE) of Coconut Fiber (FC), considering the process of improvement on a laboratory scale was 47.09MJ / kg, where 98.3% of the energy spent is related to the drying process of the fibers, and the rest to shredding, pressing and cutting the coconut. The EE of the polymeric PLA resin plate and reinforced with FC has an EE of 31.27 MJ / UF. The use of CES Edupack material selection software to simulate and compare polymeric PLA plates reinforced with FC, fiberglass, Carbon, and other Natural Fibers (FN) made it possible to verify that CF has an energetic and mechanical behavior similar to the available FN in the market. In order to qualitatively verify the main aspects and impacts inherent to the post-consumption coconut processing processes, as well as in the production of the composite and in the manufacture of the polymeric plate, the evaluation was carried out using a spreadsheet of aspects and impacts evaluated by specialists. It was identified that the main aspects inherent to the studied processes are the consumption of electric energy and the generation of residues, since the CF represents only 5.7% of the processed coconut mass, by-products such as powder and LCCV, which represent 24, 5 and 40.6%, respectively, need solutions aligned to their destination or even recovery. Among the negative environmental impacts analyzed, the potential for global warming, acidification, eutrophication and land use modification were highlighted.