## 5 Discussion
From a perspective of cost analysis associated with long-distance maritime transport, of the transatlantic type, where the vessels used can transport around 60,000 tons of biomass pellets, it is possible to quantify a reduction in transport costs per unit of energy, which can vary between 35% and 52%. In the case of smaller boats that carry pellets within the European space, with capacities of around 7500 tons, the cost reductions are smaller. However, they are still quite interesting, ranging from 20% to 40%. In other words, thermochemical conversion technologies present themselves as enhancing the competitive logistical advantages of biomass products, associated with energy transport. In addition, the torrefied biomass products show other advantages, presented in the works of [PERSON] et al. (2011), [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2014), [PERSON] et al. (2018), or [PERSON] et al. (2020). These advantages are related to the hydrophobicity of materials, which allow their storage in less demanding situations, which can be arranged outdoors, similarly to coal. Moreover, their storage period can even be prolonged indefinitely, since these products do not react to biological activity [151; 152; 153; 154]. This is an advantage, especially for short distance supply chains, since torrefied or carbonized biomass can also be used as a raw material for other processes, namely for the production of hydrogen by gasification [155; 156; 157]. From the point of view of the aptitude to combustion of the biomasses, there is some agreement of the results obtained in this work with the results from other previous works. In the case of sugar cane bagasse, the results of this work are concordant with those by [PERSON] et al. (2020), wherein the feasibility of using sugarcane bagasse subjected to carbonization of biomass at different temperatures was demonstrated, for applications of energy recovery from biomass products [21]. There are several references regarding torrefaction and pyrolysis of coconut shell, e.g., [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2010), which concludes that severe torrefaction is not recommended to pretreat biomass due to a high percentage of mass loss and due to the possible difficulty of densifying torrefied products posteriori [79]. In the work presented by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2017), it is shown that the average yield is 38.20% for a process temperature of 348 \({}^{\circ}\)C, which agrees with the results obtained in the present work, where, for 300 \({}^{\circ}\)C, a 41% mass yield was obtained, and, for 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C, a 35% mass yield was obtained [158]. PKS, perhaps the most studied product, of all those analyzed here, is the product that also presents the most interesting results, mainly for tests carried out at 300 \({}^{\circ}\)C, resulting in products presenting a MY of 64% and a 72% EY. Regarding cashewnt shells, there are currently no studies available that can serve as a point of comparison. However, the results obtained were good, especially mass yield, which is 62%, and EY, which is 170% relative to tests carried out at 300 \({}^{\circ}\)C. These values showed a significant potential technological upgrading of the feedstock with thermochemical conversion. In Table 7, the LHV of commercial coals, used for the production of electricity, is shown with values ranging between 16.1 MJ/kg and 33.4 MJ/kg. This LHV range is similar to the LHV range between 19.01 MJ/kg and 31.36 MJ/kg found for the biomass samples analyzed in this work. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Coal Grade** & **LHV (MJ/kg)** \\ \hline Anthracite & 30.1 \\ Semi-Anthracite & 32.1 \\ Low-volatile Bituminous & 33.4 \\ Medium-volatile Bituminous & 32.2 \\ High-volatile Bituminous A & 30.5 \\ High-volatile Bituminous B & 28.3 \\ High-volatile Bituminous C & 25.0 \\ Subbituminous B & 21.3 \\ Subbituminous C & 20.8 \\ Lignite & 16.1 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 7: Approximate lower heating values (LHV) of standard grades of coal (adapted from References [159; 160]).