Kinetic study for the co-pyrolysis of water hyacinth biomass with waste polystyrene

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Co-pyrolysis behavior of water hyacinth (WHC) and waste PS using thermogravimetric analysis to determine kinetic parameters was investigated. TG and DTG results indicated that the pyrolysis of WHC and mixture of WHC and waste PS could be divided into three stages. It was found that co-pyrolysis of WHC and waste PS delayed the pyrolysis process with a wider decomposition temperature range, when compared with the pyrolysis of PS. The results compared with the pyrolysis of individual components revealed a positive synergistic interaction between WHC and waste PS according to the difference in weight loss. Coats-Redfern method was applied in the second stage to evaluate the activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A) from the data of weight loss using three major reaction mechanisms. Two conversion temperature zones, zone I of 240-400 °C and zone II of 400-530 °C, were identified and a best-fit model describing the co-pyrolysis behavior of mixture was achieved. The addition of waste PS to WHC led to a slight decrease in the activation energy in the first zone and then the activation energy significantly reduced in the second zone. Chemical reaction and diffusion-controlled reaction mechanisms could be kinetically examined and enabled good explanation of the co-pyrolysis behavior of the mixture of WHC and waste PS as well as individual pyrolysis.