Kinetic study of the pyrolysis and combustion of tomato plant

Abstract

A kinetic study of the thermal decomposition of tomato plant has been carried out under different conditions by TG and TG–MS. A total of 24 experiments were performed in a nitrogen atmosphere (pyrolysis runs) and also in an oxidative atmosphere with two different oxygen concentrations (10% and 20% oxygen in nitrogen). Dynamic runs and dynamic + isothermal runs have been carried out to obtain many data of decomposition under different operating conditions. A scheme of five independent reactions for pseudocomponents has been proposed for the pyrolysis process, although only three fractions have probed to be significant, comparing the weight fractions of volatiles evolved with the hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin content of the plant. For the combustion runs, four new reactions have been added: two competitive oxidation reactions for the cellulose and lignin, and two combustion reactions of the carbonaceous residue obtained from pyrolysis. The kinetic parametres have been calculated by integration of the differential equations and minimizing the differences between the experimental and calculated values. It is important to emphasize that the same set of parameters has been proposed for the pyrolysis and combustion runs, and which do not depend on either the heating rate in dynamic runs or whether the run is carried out in a dynamic or isothermal mode. The influence of the oxygen pressure has been also discussed.