In this research, thermal characteristics and kinetic parameters of Tarfaya oil shale and its kerogen samples were determined by thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) under non-isothermal heating conditions. The pyrolysis experiments

In Morocco, large quantities of agricultural residues such as date stones are generated annually during the processing of date palm fruit. This waste is usually discarded although it can be used as an attractive energy source or can be converted into chemical products using thermochemical conversion processes. Among these processes, pyrolysis has attracted attention since it enables the production and chemical recovery. In this context, the use of date stones as a raw material for the production of bio-oil and biochar using a fixed-bed reactor is investigated. The pyrolysis process was performed by varying three parameters: temperature (400-600 °C), heating rate (10-50 °C•min −1 ), and particle size (0.5-1.5 mm). The modeling and optimization of the process parameters were conducted using the Box-Behnken experimental design. The maximum value of the desirability function was obtained at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C, a heating rate of 10 °C/min, and a particle size of 1.5 mm. Under these conditions, the bio-oil and biochar produced were successfully characterized using different analytical techniques including elemental analysis, chemical composition, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the bio-oil can be used as a biofuel owing to its high content of aliphatic hydrocarbon compounds. The biochar having a high carbon content is a promising candidate for the production of activated carbon.

Pyrolysis kinetics of oil shale mixed with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was investigated using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) system at various heating rates of 2, 10, 20 and 50 K/min in the temperature range of 300-1273 K in the nitrogen atmosphere. Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, Friedman, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Coats-Redfern methods have been used to determine activation energies of materials degradation. The analysis of the process mechanism by Criado and Coats-Redfern methods showed the following: the mechanism of thermal degradation process of HDPE is describable by the "Contracting cylinder" model (R2 mechanism); and the most probable model for the pyrolysis process of oil shale kerogen is the diffusion model (D4 mechanism), while the mixture degrades following the kinetic model of D4. It has been found that during thermal decomposition of oil shale/HDPE mixture no significant interaction of solid-phase components had taken place under the experimental conditions investigated.