Brazil's Diamante Power Plant Ships 880 kg of Biochar to Pecém Plant for October Testing

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Diamante Geração de Energia, a power plant located in the state of Ceará, announced this Monday (17th) that it shipped 880 kg of biochar made from coconut shells to UTE (Usina Termelétrica, i.e., thermoelectric plant) Energia Pecém at the end of July. The material will be used to formulate the final blended coal fuel, which will undergo combustion testing in an industrial boiler in October. These activities are part of a study conducted by Diamante in partnership with the State University of Ceará (Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Uece).

The biochar, produced over the course of a year by Uece's Energy Conversion and Innovation Laboratory (Laboratório de Conversão Energética e Inovação da Uece), was mixed with 87,120 kg of mineral coal upon arrival at UTE Energia Pecém. An additional 520 kg of biochar is still needed to complete the final mixture to be used in the testing.

According to engineer Diego Rebouças, who is involved in the project, the study aims, among other aspects, to measure the amount of CO2 captured by the biochar, with a view to accumulating carbon credits. The higher the proportion of biochar, the greater the emission reduction potential.

Pedro Litsek, president of Diamante, stated that the goal of investing in this research, in addition to technically enabling the use of this material, is to pave the way for reducing emissions and generating carbon credits in the plant's operations. The total investment in the project is R$ 2.7 million, funded by the PDI (Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Inovação, i.e., Research, Development, and Innovation) program of the Brazilian National Electric Energy Agency (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica, ANEEL).