Study of the specific heat capacity of biomass from banana waste for application in the second-generation ethanol industry

An accurate determination of the thermal properties of biomass is particularly important when studying biomaterials for the second‐generation ethanol industry. This study presents the thermograms of aqueous solutions of banana flower stalks obtained using differential scanning calorimetry. The samples were prepared using a detailed procedure to obtain normalized specific heat values as a function of temperature, pH, and biomass concentration. The specific heat capacity data were fitted using empirical first‐order equations with an algorithm for nonlinear regression, followed by a statistical analysis. All the models applied in modeling of the specific heat capacity showed statistically significant goodness of fit ( Radj2 > 0.996) for all the parameters in the selected expressions. The results obtained in this research can provide information for the modeling, design, and control of the unit operations involved in the second‐generation ethanol industry. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 1221–1228, 2015