03174naa a2200241 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000210006024500680008126000090014952025010015865000120265965000240267165000120269565300140270770000220272170000230274370000200276670000240278670000210281070000220283177300790285318976922011-08-10       2008    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aDELBEN, J. R. J.  aVacuum pyrolysis of Astronium urundeuva.h[electronic resource]  c2008  aCurrently, there are ecological and energy crises due to the increasing demand for industrialized products and personal comfort (thermal conditioning, alimentary needs, transport demand, etc.). The consumption of fossil energy sources (coal and oil) is significant considering depleting supplies. In underdeveloped countries, native forest territory is being lost as the original forest biomass is consumed and agricultural land borders expand. The release of pollutant carbon into the atmosphere is increasing; this carbon was previously fixed in wood, oil beds and native forest. Meanwhile, the fossil reserves will be depleted in a few decades. Due to this situation, petroleum natural gas (PNG) is beginning to be used intensely worldwide, in the past it was released into the atmosphere. The development of cheap materials for large-scale permanent fixation of carbon, while adsorbing PNG for storage and transport, is desired. There are three options for storing PNG: ? the use of appropriate solvent; its drawback is the low solubility of the methane, requiring high pressures [1] ? the inclusion of composites [2]; its disadvantage is the low storage capacity ? the adsorption in porous materials [3?8]; that is the most promising mechanism ? A lot of research is focused on the development of microporous adsorbers with a large superficial area, high packing density and good mass and heat transfer properties [9, 10]. The best choice so far is activated charcoal acting as an adsorber. Such a system can store PNG at moderate pressures (3.5 MPa), compared with the high pressures (20 MPa) required for natural gas compression [11]. Its storage capacity is in the range of 300?700 Kg m?3, with the adsorbed/adsorbent volume rate varying from 101 to 172 V/V, whereas the ideal rate is around 150 V/V [4, 5, 7, 12?17]. The pyrolysis of vegetal organics is a common process for activating carbon. The activation of carbon can occur in some environments, such as vacuum, steam, and CO2, with different results on the microporosity lacking meso- and macroporosity. The maximization of the superficial area and adsorption capacity of the activated charcoal is still under study [18?20]. In this work, the pyrolysis of the Aroeira (Astronium Urundeuva), a wood of the Middle West Brazilian Biome, is presented. The samples were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).  aAroeira  aAstronium Urundeuva  aMadeira  aPirólise1 aCANDELORIO, P. D.1 aOLIVEIRA, F. F. DE1 aSPONTONI, T. A.1 aDELBEN, A. A. S. T.1 aCOELHO, M. de B.1 aANDRADE, L. H. C.  tJournal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetrygv. 93, n.3, p. 915-919, 2008.