Integral use of lignocellulosic residues from different sunflower accessions: Analysis of the production potential for biofuels

Abstract

Four accessions of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) were cultivated simultaneously under controlled conditions in quadruplicate. In the present experiment, technology equivalent to the production system utilized by the sunflower producers in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil was used. The biomass was collected separately: seeds, stalk, and capitulum (head). Thereafter, each fraction of each accession was quantitated separately with respect to its production and oil yield per hectare. Furthermore, the lignocellulosic chemical characteristics of each stalk and head were studied, adopting the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) methodology. Among the studied sunflower accessions, characterization of the whole residues showed that Aguará 4 had the highest cellulose content in the stalks (40.7%), followed by Hélio 360 (39.0%). However, the projection of the potential of biomass yield points to accession M734 as having the highest potential to provide total sugars (1557 kg⋅ha−1) and oil (663 kg⋅ha−1) for large-scale production. These results allow both the estimation of the potential of biofuel production using residues from different sunflower accessions and the performance of an economic essay regarding the production of sunflower as a raw material for the development of biofuels.