Abstract
The macadamia tree is known for producing fruit high in fats, enclosed in very hard woody shells. Macadamia nut shell, considered as a by-product from macadamia nut processing, may be a suitable option for pyrolysis. These residues are constituted of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and extractives. The Independent Parallel Reaction (IPR) Model has been applied in this work to study the pyrolysis of macadamia nut shell from thermogravimetric experiments. The kinetic parameters and mass fraction of each component were estimated using the Differential Evolution Algorithm. The influence of the model parameters was also analyzed by means of sensitivity studies. The results showed that the decomposition of the macadamia nut shell is more sensitive to the parameters related to the decomposition of lignin. The results of sensitivity analysis also showed that the activation energy affects the total biomass conversion more strongly than the other parameters and the contribution of extractives in the IPR model is as important as the hemicellulose.
Highlights
Macadamia is a small evergreen tree, native to eastern Australia
In order to assess the quality of fit parameters of the Independent Parallel Reaction (IPR) model and compare them with results presented in the literature, the fit between the experi
The lower temperature shoulder represents the decomposition of hemicellulose present in the macadamia nut shell and the higher temperature peak corresponds to the decomposition of cellulose
Summary
Macadamia is a small evergreen tree, native to eastern Australia. The tree is known for producing a fruit (nuts), enclosed in very hard, woody shells. Macadamia nuts are extremely nutritious, with a high amount of beneficial fatty acids, as well as calcium, iron and B vitamins. Hawaii is the major producer of macadamia nuts, followed by Australia. Other producers include Brazil, South Africa, Guatemala, Kenya, Costa Rica, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand and China (Penoni et al, 2011). Environmental awareness has increased, and various strategies have been employed to reduce the
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