Thermogravimetric kinetic study of agricultural residue biomass pyrolysis based on combined kinetics.

Pyrolytic kinetic of an agricultural residue (AR) feedstock, a mixture of plants (cotton, wheat, rich, corn) stems, was investigated based on combined kinetics. The most suitable mechanism for AR one-step pyrolysis was f(α)=(1-α)(1.1816)α(-1.8428) with kinetic parameters of: apparent activation energy 221.7kJ/mol, pre-exponential factor 4.17E16s(-1). Pyrolysis of AR feedstock could not be described by one-step reaction attributes to heterogeneous features of pyrolysis processes. Combined kinetics three-parallel-reaction (CK-TPR) model fitted the pyrolysis experimental data very well. Reaction mechanisms for pseudo hemicelluloses, cellulose, lignin in CK-TPR model was f(α)=(1-α)(1.6244)α(-0.3371)-ln(1-α), f(α)=(1-α)(1.0597)α(-0.6909)-ln(1-α) and f(α)=(1-α)(2.9577)α(-4.7719), respectively. Apparent activation energy of three pseudo components followed the order of Elignin(197.3kJ/mol)>Ecellulose(176.3kJ/mol)>Ehemicelluloses (151.1kJ/mol). Mechanism of hemicelluloses pyrolysis could be further expressed as f(α)=(1-α)(1.4). The pyrolytic mechanism of cellulose met the Nucleation well. However, mechanism of lignin pyrolysis was complex, which possibly was the combined effects of Nucleation, Diffusion, Geometrical contraction, and Power law.