Sustainable disposal of waste from the flower industry for energy production

Abstract

Rapid urbanization around the world, exponential population growth and industrialization have led to a waste management challenge that is increasing daily. Waste from floriculture is also a major problem, as flowers play an important role in people's lives, beautifying interiors and landscapes as well as promoting human health. However, flowers are perishable and complex plant organs that need to be properly handled and stored to maintain their value and quality, which can be lost due to leaf or petal drop, leaf chlorosis, geotropic stem snap, excessive respiration/transpiration or storage/handling at high temperatures. Fresh flowers are the most attractive on the market, but their shelf life is very short, which is why they fetch high prices. Despite the widespread use of flower species, only part of the plant is used, usually only the petals, while the larger part remains unused and becomes waste. Therefore, the question arises whether the residues that remain after the use of marigolds in various industries can be used for energy production.

For this reason, the biomass of different flower species was used in this work. The basic energetic properties were determined according to the given standards, namely the content of water, ash, coke, fixed carbon and volatile matter as well as the upper and lower calorific value and the content of C, H, N and S. The results obtained showed that the waste from the flower industry is an ideal raw material for energetic utilization due to the calorific value of 15.60 MJ/kg and can be best utilized in biogas production due to the high water content of  91 %.