The traditional sugar production associated with the growing ethanol production makes the sugarcane industry one of the main segments of the Brazilian economy; together the Brazilian industries of sugar and ethanol processed about 630 million tons of sugarcane in 2009, which generated approximately 142 million tons of bagasse. This work presents an economically and environmentally viable solution for the bagasse disposal through the controlled burn associated with the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), materials that have a wide range of potential technological applications due to its exceptional properties. The pyrolysis process at 1000°C associated with a catalyst system were used to recover the generated gases as raw material for the synthesis of CNTs. Gaseous emissions were analyzed by chromatography and the produced materials were characterized with the use of SEM, TEM, TGA and Raman spectroscopy. Results showed that the catalyst application resulted in the reduction of gaseous emissions. Carbon nanotubes with lengths of 10-40 µm and diameters in the range of 20-50 nm were produced.
Carbon nanotubes; ethanol; sugarcane; pyrolysis
