Isoconversional thermal decomposition reaction kinetics of oil palm trunk and rubberwood sawdust for thermochemical conversion processes.

Biomass as a raw material has profound implications for thermal conversion processes. It is important to study the relationship between kinetic modeling to depict significant importance in thermal processing by estimating volatile yield and reaction performance during biomass decomposition. This work aimed to determine the thermal decomposition reaction kinetics of non-woody (oil palm trunk (OPT)) and woody (rubberwood sawdust (RWS)) biomass. Devolatilization of biomass is determined by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) at three different heating rates (10, 20, and 30 °C/min) using nitrogen as inert gas. The kinetic analysis used isoconversion models of Friedman, Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW), and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS). The activation energy varied from 218.4 to 303.8 kJ/mol (Friedman), 235.9 to 299.1 kJ/mol (OFW), and 235.8 to 298.9 kJ/mol (KAS) for OPT; and 199.7 to 228.1 kJ/mol (Friedman), 210.6 to 225.6 kJ/mol (OFW), and 210.7 to 225.2 kJ/mol (KAS) for RWS. The kinetic analysis indicated that RWS and OPT had diverse reaction kinetics, which depend on the reaction rate and order of the reaction. Experimental and theoretical conversion data agreed reasonably well, indicating that these results can be used for future OPT and RWS process modeling. Consistency of results is validated using GC-MS equipped with a pyrolyzer.