Assessment of the use of common juniper (Juniperus communis L.) foliage following the cascade principle: essential oil, absorbents and biochar

The main objective of the BeonNAT project is to create added-value bio-based products by growing underused tree and shrub species in marginal land. One of the species selected within the project is juniper (Juniperus communis L). Foliage biomass coming from a natural population in Spain was selected and a first sampling of wild biomass (1000 kg fresh plants with stem diameters below 50 mm) was performed. This biomass was distilled and, after it, different alternatives were defined in the project to obtain bioproducts from the distilled biomass following the cascade concept. Among them, absorbents for the pet industry and biochar have been selected in this work. Concerning the steam distillation, an essential oil yield of 0.44% (w/w d.b) was obtained and the characterisation of the essential oil compounds showed that it was close to meet the limits considered by the ISO 8897:2010. A fraction of the distilled biomass was used to produce pellets, whose quality as absorbents for the pet industry was promising. Finally, the rest of the distilled biomass was used to obtain biochar with a yield of 28.79 % (w/w d.b) and characteristics which indicated a good degree of carbonisation and stability.

Keywords

Absorption Biobased products Biochar Essential oil Juniperus communis L. Pellet

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10198/29268

Citation

Mediavilla, Irene; Bados, Raquel; Barros, Lillian; Xavier, Virginie; Finimundy, Tiane C.; Amaral, Joana S.; Rizzo, Andrea Maria; Casini, David; Lombardi, Giacomo; Cámara, Miguel; Suárez, Ana; Ardid, Tomás (2022). Assessment of the use of common juniper (Juniperus communis L.) foliage following the cascade principle: essential oil, absorbents and biochar. In 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (EUBCE). ISSN 2282-5819. p. 1035-1041