Keywords
agricultural waste
circular economy
revalorization
How to Cite
Abstract
Nowadays, agricultural waste has become a global problem because there is no strategy for its management; thus, most of them ends up in landfills, and in the worst of cases burned, wasting their potential. In particular, Mexico is the world’s leading tomato supplier, contributing 3.46% of gross domestic product. Such production also involves the generation of large volumes of waste. In this context, the present paper proposes producing solid biofuels (pellets) from organic agricultural waste generated in tomato production to be integrated into the production chain as an alternative energy source in the greenhouse, evaluating economic and environmental aspects. Pellets are integrated into the production system as a heat source in greenhouses replacing LP gas. As a case study, tomato production was considered; from which the amount of residual biomass generated was taken as the basis to produce fuel pellets, climatic conditions, and the energy potential for use as biofuel were taken as the basis to produce fuel pellets. The results show that the waste generated in tomato production can supply more than 77% of the energy required for heating the greenhouse. It is developing an economic saving of more than USD 918 and reducing by 87% the environmental impact per productive period, compared to the expenditure of gas LP. In this way, it is possible to observe that the reintegration of waste generated by tomato production as a source of green energy is a promising strategy for developing biofuels that reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Likewise, the return of such waste is one activity that contributes to transit to the circular economy by taking advantage of the by-products generated.
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