Paper Title
Study on Liquefaction Optimization of Chestnut Shells

Abstract
Chestnut Shells (CS) is a by-product of some food sector companies. The main objective of this study was to contribute to the development of previous research regarding the chemical composition of CS and to optimize the amount of CS liquefied by polyols in order to test the head of the material for the production of high added value products from the liquefied material. The liquefaction was performed in a double shirt reactor heated by oil using a mixture of ethyleneglycol and glycerol catalyzed by sulfuric acid. Different experiences were carried out related to different parameters:: particle sizes, temperatures 140-200 ºC and time 15-120 min. Initial chemical composition was also determined. Results showed that CS is a material in which Klason lignin is the major component (with around 49.4 %), followed by celluloses (with around 35.0%) and extractives in ethanol (9.64%). Optimal conditions to attain the best liquefaction yield were 180ºC, 60 min and a 60-80 particle size. Keywords - Chestnut Shells; chemical composition; polyalcohol liquefaction, Biomass, Agro-industrial residues