Pyrolysis characteristics and kinetic parameters assessment of typical agricultural residues using high heating photothermal TGA

Understanding the complexity of thermal degradation characteristics, kinetic behavior, and thermodynamic parameters is pertinent for the efficient design and process optimization of large-scale conversion systems. Comparative assessment of pyrolysis characteristics and thermodynamic parameters of corn cobs (CC), peanut shells (PS) and sugarcane bagasse (SB) are investigated using high heating rates (100–1000 ℃/min) TGA results. Despite the effect of the heating rate increase on the degradation process of individual samples, increasing heating rates affect pyrolysis characteristics due to compositional differences. With increasing heating rates, the comprehensive pyrolysis index increased sporadically for CC (2.54–44.09 ×104%2/min2 ℃3) and PS (1.36–31.13 ×104%2/min2 ℃3), indicating easier release of volatiles at higher pyrolysis heating rates. The pyrolysis stability index (Rw), which relates to thermal degradation stability, presented an increasing trend (CC>PS>SB) with a heating rate increase (≥106%). Kinetic parameters estimated using model-free methods showed that the activation energies of CC and PS were significantly lower than that of SB. Comparative evaluation of fractional conversions and kinetic parameters using traditional and modified parallel models showed that the double random pore model (DRPM) fitted the best for simulating the experimental results at higher heating rates than other models. The change in Gibbs free energy (ΔG) trend for PS and SB showed a deviation, suggesting reaction difficulties due to higher temperature demands.