Performance evaluation of a fabricated charcoal-fired oven for valorizing biowastes

Deproteinizing animal bones from biogenic sources using the open-air burning protocol constitutes less thermal efficiency and poses health risks to the users. Improving the energy efficiency during deproteinization has become important in laboratories involved in utilizing animal bones for producing biogenic apatite for biomedical use. Hence, to enhance the improved thermal efficiency during a typical deproteinization protocol in a laboratory, a charcoal-fired oven was developed for deproteinizing and defatting animal bones using a thermochemical protocol. The result of the performance evaluation of the fabricated oven which was compared to open-air deproteinization showed that the average temperature obtainable in the fabricated system was 871.8 °C as against 594.26 °C obtained from open-air deproteinization. Also, the open-air deproteinization technique utilized an average of 3.9 kg of charcoal for near complete protein removal in 180 min, while the fabricated charcoal-fired oven utilized an average of 2.3 kg in 110 min. The functional groups and morphology of the powders produced using the two deproteinization methods showed gradients in characteristics, with the functional groups ascribed to bands noticed in all Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectra of hydroxyapatite (HAp). The improved performance of the fabricated oven is as a result of its improved thermal efficiency by reason of the draft enabled by the use of a fan which allowed rapid heat circulation, and insulators on the walls of the oven which prevented heat loss to the surroundings. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].