Thermogravimetric properties and degradation kinetics of biomass during its thermochemical conversion process

Abstract

Developing a low-cost disruptive technology for producing high-quality eco-friendly biofuel has become the prime focus of achieving environmental harmony. As a research effort to achieve this, the non-isothermal degradation kinetics, and the thermogravimetric properties of pine sawdust (PSD) during its thermochemical conversion were studied. The Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Friedman model-free methods were employed to estimate the parametric degradation kinetics of PSD. In contrast, the integral master plot models were used to evaluate the process's most effective reaction model. The kinetic model was studied over a 10–75% conversion range and heating rates of 10, 15, and 20 K/min. The estimated activation energies for the KAS and Friedman methods were 93.33–309.18 kJ/mol and 98.31–313.60 kJ/mol, respectively. The degradation process's average activation energy was 168.21 kJ/mol using the model-free techniques. It was found to lie between 156.34 and 183.36 kJ/mol using the F6 and F7 integral master-model. Hence, the differential form f∝=1-∝6-7 described the thermal degradation of pine sawdust. Experimental observations obtained from this study will pave the way for further exploration of biomass as an energy source and provide vital information on designing an optimized thermochemical conversion reactor by modeling biomass's devolatilization process.