Influence of the fertilizer type in the agronomic and energetic behaviour of the residues coming from oleander, cypress and quinoa

Abstract

The use of biomass as an alternative energy source is a fact. Apart from the traditional ones, this work aims to carry out an energy and agronomic analysis of three new crops: oleander, cypress and quinoa. In the same sense, fertilizers of different nature (organic and inorganic) were applied to determine the influence on agronomic and thermal behaviour. TGA and characteristic indexes were employed for an oxidative atmosphere. All the crops here analysed had acceptable value as fuels. Organic fertilizer consisting of cow manure was the one that further increased the height and diameter of the plants. Likewise, oleander was the species with better fuel potential together with the lowest gases emission. Devolatilization and ignition weight loss stages were identified in DTG profiles being quinoa stems the raw material with higher DTGmax values (> 7 %/min). As kinetics concerned, fertilizer application decreased the activation energy values for almost all cases.