Thermogravimetric analysis of Pakistani biomasses using nitrogen and oxygen as a carrier gas

Abstract

Thermochemical characterization of four different biomasses sawdust (SD), rice husk (RH), cotton stalk (CS) and sugarcane bagasse (SB) was investigated to understand their kinetic characteristics. The TGA experiments were done using inert and oxidative atmospheres to understand the reaction kinetics of selected biomasses. The temperature was enlarged from room temperature to 900 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C min−1 under non-isothermal conditions. The weight loss of all the four biomass materials under an inert and oxygen environments showed alike weight loss trend occurring in three main stages. It was observed that all four biomass materials degraded in three identical regions. In the first region of weight loss, moisture evaporation was observed, in second region cellulose and hemicellulose degradation was achieved, whereas in third region lignin degradation was achieved under both an inert and oxy-combustion atmospheres at different temperature ranges. The activation energy, pre-exponential factors were evaluated through Arrhenius correlation equations. The values of E calculated during pyrolysis for CS, SB, SD and RH were 79.10, 68.32, 53.46, 52.9 (kJ mol−1) during oxy-combustion atmospheres 122.6, 106.31, 123.28 and 118 (kJ mol−1), respectively.