Mechanistic Investigation and Thermal Degradation of Eichhornia Crassipes Using Thermogravimetric Analysis

The study deals with the thermal degradation of water hyacinth (WH) using thermogravimetric analysis. Pyrolytic kinetic study of the feedstock was done using four isoconversional methods i.e. Friedman, Starink, Flynn-Wall- Ozawa (FWO), and Kissinger- Akahira-Sunose (KAS). Average values of activation energy of pyrolysis of WH were found to be 298.48, 252.26, 260.58 and 251.33 kJ/mol using Friedman, Starink, FWO, and KAS method, respectively in the conversion range of 0.15 – 0.75. Pyrolysis of biomass exhibit strong dependence on the degree of conversion ( α ). Solid-state reaction mechanism of pyrolysis was studied by the Criado method. The obtained result shows that the decomposition of biomass followed a two-dimensional diffusion mechanism for α ≤ 0.5. In contrast, for α ≥ 0.5 the reaction is well described by nucleation and growth mechanism. The large value of Δ S indicates higher reactivity and lesser time is consumed for the formation of the activated complex. Results of these analyses show that water hyacinth has substantial potential and can be used as a useful feedstock for bioenergy production.