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Obtaining Biogenic Silica from Sugarcane Bagasse and Leaf Ash

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Abstract

Besides mineral sources, silica can be found in plants, particularly in the epidermis, since during their growth plants absorb the mono-silicic acid present in the soil, storing it as a natural form of protection, insect pest control and transpiration regulator. Among the plants that present high levels of silica in their ashes, we can highlight sugarcane, with Brazil being the largest producer of sugarcane derived (sugar and bioethanol) in the world, accounting 615 million tons per year. Thus, the increasing of the international demand encourages an increase of the availability of sugarcane wastes, pushing its use for the generation of electric power, as for other purposes enabling a sustainable development. In this work, high purity silica nanoparticles (up to 95%) with predominantly amorphous microstructure were obtained after thermal (500 to 700 °C) and chemical treatments (1 molar hydrochloric acid solution, 10% volume) of sugarcane bagasse and leaves ashes. The obtained results indicate the possibility of using this silica in ceramics, glasses, refractory materials and construction applications, as well as in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry, molecular sieves and mesoporous membranes. The silica obtained in this research also proved to be suitable for obtaining porous silicon (using magnesiothermic reduction), where the experimental procedure employed is described elsewhere.

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Notes

  1. During experimental period, the authors opted not to characterize the BET for ashes obtained with Rout B due to low yield of this process, allied to the high content of liquid effluents generated during the leaching/washing/filtering process. Submission and review period occurred during the COVID crisis and due to the interruption of activities at university where this research was developed, it was not possible to obtain the sample amount needed to perform the specific area characterization.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support provided by CAPES, CNPq (PDJ Process: 150542/2017-8, Project: 438020/2016-2). To the technical staff from Central Laboratory of Electronic Microscopy (LCME) from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). To the employees from the sugarcane kiosk for the kind donation of sugarcane bagasse and leaves. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) – CAPES-PRINT (Project Number: 88881.310728/2018-01).

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  1. Graduate Program in Materials Science and Engineering (PGMAT), Laboratory of Glass-Ceramic Materials (VITROCER, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), PO Box 476, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

    Luyza Bortolotto Teixeira, Elisângela Guzi de Moraes, Giovanna Paolinelli Shinhe, Gilberto Falk & Antonio Pedro Novaes de Oliveira

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  1. Luyza Bortolotto Teixeira
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Bortolotto Teixeira, L., Guzi de Moraes, E., Paolinelli Shinhe, G. et al. Obtaining Biogenic Silica from Sugarcane Bagasse and Leaf Ash. Waste Biomass Valor 12, 3205–3221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-020-01230-y

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