Pyrolysis Characteristics and Kinetics of Corn Residue Studied by Diffrential Thermogravimetry

The kinetics of biomass pyrolysis plays a major role in the design and control ofthermochemical conversion of biomass to bio crude and fuel gas. Moreover, commercial energyproduction requires knowledge of the kinetics and mechanisms of biomass degradation, aprocess in which pyrolysis is an attractive and practicable method. Thermoanalytical techniques,especially thermogravimetric analysis and derivative thermogravimetry, allow us to obtaindynamic data. Mathematical modeling of the thermal decompositions will help us in checking thevalidity of assumptions and in drawing quantitative conclusions.

The pyrolysis characteristics of corn residues will be investigated in this research. The purposeof this study is to obtain detailed information on the pyrolysis characteristics and chemicalkinetics of corn stovers and corn cobs. A thermogravimetric analysis including determination of kinetic parameters will be performed at a constant heating rate of 5K/min, 10 K/min, and 30K/min. The degradation of corn sotvers and corn cobs was modeled by three first orderindependent parallel reactions, describing the degradation of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin.The effect of the heating rate on the pyrolysis behavior will also be presented. Kinetic modelswill be established and evaluated using actual experiment data.