Devolatilization behavior and pyrolysis kinetics of potential Tunisian biomass fuels

Abstract

Biomass thermochemical conversion is complex and requires a good understanding of the thermal decomposition process. This process may be identified using mass loss kinetics which are useful for the design of proper equipment used for biomass conversion. This work aims to determine devolatilization kinetic parameters characterizing four Tunisian biomass species: industrial by product (Pine Sawdust), agro‐industrial by product (Olive Solid Waste), agricultural residue (Date Palm Trunk) and seaweed (Posidonia Oceanica) using data from non‐isothermal thermogravimetry and the Coats and Redfern calculation method. Decomposition TG and DTG data were analyzed by applying 10 kinetic models including processes governed by nuclei growth, surface nucleation followed by geometric, diffusion and chemical reaction models. Obtained results show that biomass pyrolysis is represented by two successive steps: (i) devolatilization stage characterized by high weight loss rate, which is well described by diffusional, surface nucleation followed by geometric and first order chemical reaction models. (ii) char formation stage characterized by low weight loss rate, which is well described by second order and third order chemical reaction models. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 33: 1452–1458, 2014

Characterization of the liquid products obtained from Tunisian waste fish fats using the pyrolysis process

“…Elmay et al have investigated the combustion performance of different date palm residues [6]. Recently, Jeguirim et al have characterized four Tunisian biomass species: industrial by product (Pine Sawdust), agro-industrial by product (Olive Solid Waste), agricultural residue (Date Palm Trunk) and seaweed (Posidonia oceanica) to assess their eventual utilization for energy recovery [7]. These previous investigations have showed promising issues for the energy recovery of dry biomasses.…”

Combustion characteristics and kinetics of torrefied olive pomace

“…The estimated quantities in EU are about 6.8 million tons/year. Among these wastes, olive solid waste (olive husk or olive pomace), by-product of the three phase extraction system, seems to be a promising energy source with lower heating value around 18 MJ/kg [30]. Exhaustive information on the different oil extraction techniques and the corresponding generated wastes could be found in the detailed review [29].…”

The Effect of Rice Straw Gasification Temperature on the Release and Occurrence Modes of Na and K in a Fluidized Bed

“…The composition of the LTA is shown in Table 2. Compared with industrial by product and agro-industrial and marine biomass in the literature [24], the rice straw as an agricultural residue shows higher amounts of volatiles-more than 70%-but relatively lower ash contents. The high amount of volatile matter in the original rice straw as shown in Table 1 means the fuels mainly content lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose [25].…”