Pyrolysis characteristics and kinetic parameters assessment of three waste biomass

This work reports the kinetics and pyrolysis characteristics of three waste biomass, viz., pinewood sawdust, sal wood sawdust, and Areca Nut husk powders. Pyrolysis was conducted with five different heating rates of 5 °C min^-1-25 °C min^-1 under an inert atmosphere. The burnout temperatures and physicochemical properties of the three biomass were reported in this work. The results indicated that heating rates widely affected the burnout temperatures during combustion. When heating rates increased, the burnout temperatures shifted towards the higher temperature region. It was observed that kinetic parameters and degradation rates were functions of heating rate and temperature. However, activation energy varied with the change in heating rates. The activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and derivative of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) (DTG) characteristics were affected by the rise in heating rates. At higher heating rates, DTG peaks shifted to the higher temperature region, but it does not affect the conversion of biomass. TGA and DTG analysis indicated that all the three biomass undergone three degradation stages, and differential scanning calorimetric analysis confirmed the endothermic and exothermic pathways of these biomass. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis revealed the presence of various functional groups in the biomass.