Biocarbon production from Hungarian sunflower shells

The production of biodiesel and bioethanol fuels is often accompanied by the co-production of lignocellulosic “waste” byproducts. For example, the oil from sunflower seeds (that can be used to manufacture biodiesel fuel) has as “waste” co-products the sunflower shell and its stem. In this paper we examine the production of biocarbon (charcoal) from sunflower shells produced in Hungary. The conversion of these shells to biocarbon via the University of Hawaii's Flash CarbonizationTM process is efficient and very quick. An increase in reaction pressure from 1.27 to 2.17 MPa causes a reduction in reaction time that results in a significant increase in charcoal production and profitability. These findings justify further study of the benefits of charcoal production at pressures above 2 MPa.