Biopolymeric degradation of jute sticks under pyrolytic thermal stresses

Abstract

For the first time pyrolytic degradation of biopolymers and multi-pseudo component of jute sticks (JS) was executed through thermogravimetric analysis. Gaussian deconvolution of first order derivative have been registered in the current manuscript to find individual signals related to each pseudo component (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin) in biomaterial. The JS characteristics, pyrolysis reaction kinetics, reaction mechanism and nature of the volatile compounds released were examined by various analytical instruments and methods, such as elemental analyzer, FTIR, AAS, TGA, GC-MS and kinetics models. The average activation energy values for JS 243.77, 234.05, 246.61, 246.74 and 260.03 kJ.mol−1 when OFW, KAS, STM, TANG and Friedman models, respectively, were used for analysis. Thermodynamic parameters (ΔH, ΔS, and ΔG) of different component of JS were also evaluated and discussed in the current context. Z(α) analysis has shown that the experimental curves have followed Avrami- Erofeyev (A2, A3, A4), power-law (P2), geometric (R2, R3), diffusional (D1, D2, D3) and reaction (F1) curves according to Criado’s master plots, indicating complex nature of pyrolysis process. Finally, it was confirmed that alcohols are major pyrolysates, followed by hydrocarbon and benzene among all other components released during pyrolysis action of JS. The finding of the study contributes to the potential of jute stick as a raw material for bioenergy and renewable chemical production. It also proves to be useful in the design and optimization of JS-based thermochemical degradation processes.