Thermal, structural, mechanical and electrical properties of biomaterial prosopis juliflora

Biomass is the most potential candidate for their quantitative availability. Prosopis juliflora a Mesquite is a shrub or small tree in the Fabaceae family. It is also one of the biomass which is available hundred hectares in India.We developed protocol in order to characterize the physical and chemical properties of P.juliflora as feed stock for energy conversion process. The particle size of the biomaterial was found to be 8nm from X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique. The SEM image reveals the particle size with a cluster of needle shaped surface with voids. Proximate and elemental analyses showed that P.juliflora has lower moisture content and high fixed carbon indicates that it is appropriate to meet requirements of thermochemical process. Also, considered as one of the strengths of biomass utilization for energy purposes in terms of contribution to environmental protection, P.julifloracontains very low level of Mg and Ca (0.39% & 2.32% respectively). Higher proportion of carbon and lower proportion of oxygen content in P.juliflora leads to high calorific value 3891Kcal/kg. Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) was performed for the identification of different modes of functional groups present in the biomaterial. From the microhardness measurements, Vickers hardness number (Hv), Stiffness constant (C11) and Yield strength (σv) have been calculated. The electrical behaviour of the biomaterial has been investigated at room temperature. The ac impedance plot indicates a single relaxation process occur at room temperature.