Energy & Fuels, Vol.33, No.4, 3299-3310, 2019
Thermogravimetric Analysis and Isoconversional Kinetic Study of Biomass Pyrolysis Derived from Land, Coastal Zone, and Marine
Three types of biofuels derived from land, coastal zone, and marine were pyrolyzed in a thermogravimetric analyzer from room temperature to 1000 degrees C under different heating rates (50, 80, and 100 degrees C/min), and three isoconversional mathematical models were established to analyze the kinetic properties of biomass. The results show that the pyrolysis process of biomass derived from different distributions included three main stages: drying and preheating stage, volatile matter evaporation stage, and carbonization stage, whereas the pyrolysis behavior of the marine seawater Spirulina (Sp) biomass is somewhat different from that of land [corn stalks (Cs)] and coastal biomasses [reed (Re)], stemming from the inherent difference in their compositions. Cs and Re species have advantages over microalgae in terms of the difficulty of volatile matters releasing, whereas the pyrolysis process of Re and Sp is faster than Cs because of the catalysis of its high salt tolerance. The heating rate has a significant effect on the performance of devolatilization profiles and maximum weight loss rate, regardless of the biomass type from different regions. The dynamics analysis indicates that Sp species is preferable to Cs and Re in terms of thermochemical conversion because of the lower apparent activation energy for total conversion. From the verification test, we concluded that the simulations for Friedman models presented a good agreement with the experimental conversions calculated at three different heating rates for Cs, Re, and Sp pyrolysis, and that the kinetic simulation of the weight loss curve and kinetic parameters obtained by pyrolysis of three biomasses is reasonable and effective.