Thermogravimetric and kinetic studies of metal (Ru/Fe) impregnated banana pseudo-stem (Musa acuminate)

Abstract

Pyrolysis/gasification have proved to be promising conversion techniques to convert biomass into fuels. The current research work focuses on impregnation of Ru and Fe into banana pseudo-stem to study kinetics, pyrolytic behaviour and their impact during pyrolysis through thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). Samples weight loss were analyzed by TGA at four different heating rates (5–20 °C min−1) over the temperature range of 30–900 °C. Isoconversional models such as Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger-Akahira-Sinose (KAS), and Kissinger’s methods were employed to calculate the activation energy and pre-exponential factor for Ru-impregnated (FWO: Eα = 73.32 kJ mol−1, KAS: Eα = 68.23 kJ mol−1 and Kissinger’s: Eα = 165.94 kJ mol−1) Fe-impregnated biomass (FWO: Eα = 86.78 kJ mol−1, KAS: Eα = 82.34 kJ mol−1 and Kissinger’s: Eα = 192.37 kJ mol−1) and compared with raw biomass (FWO: Eα = 116.22 kJ mol−1, KAS: Eα = 113.39 kJ mol−1 and Kissinger’s: Eα = 194.86 kJ mol−1). Lower activation energy and reduced weight loss were observed for metal impregnated biomass over the raw biomass.