Application of machine learning methods for lignocellulose biomass pyrolysis: Activation energy prediction from preliminary analysis and conversion degree

•Machine learning was used to model the activation energy of biomass pyrolysis.•ANN, RF, and SVM models were applied using biomass properties and reaction degree.•With R2 of 0.911, the optimized RF model presented high accuracy for Eα prediction.•The contributions of variables were determined as α > C > ash > N > H > S > method.•The constructed model could help reduce repetitive experiments and save resources.