Thermogravimetric characteristics and kinetic of co-pyrolysis of olive residue with high density polyethylene

Abstract

The co-pyrolytic behaviour of olive residue/high-desity polyethylene mixture was examined with a thermogravimetric analyser. The experiments were done over the temperature range of room temperature to 1273 K at various heating rates (2, 10, 20 and 50 K min−1) and in a nitrogen atmosphere. The results indicated that mass loss process of mixture consists of three distinct stages and the increase of the heating rate shifts in the maximum rate loss to higher temperature. The difference of mass loss (Δm) between experimental and theoretical, calculated as algebraic sums of the mixture for different heating rates of 2, 10, 20 and 50 K min−1, is about 7–11% at 740–900 K. These experimental results indicate a significant synergistic effect during co-pyrolysis of olive residue with high-density polyethylene. In addition, a kinetic analysis was performed to fit thermogravimetric data, the mixture is considered as multi-stage process. A reasonable fit to the experimental data was obtained for all materials and their mixture by isoconversional Friedman method.