Pyrolysis Characteristics and Kinetics of Municipal Sludge by Thermogravimetry-Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis (TG-FTIR)

To obtain the pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics during the pyrolysis of municipal sludge, the characteristic of mass loss and the pyrolysis gas products were analyzed by TG-FTIR and the kinetic parameters were calculated by the Coats-Redfem method. The results indicate that the pyrolysis process of municipal sludge in nitrogen can be divided into three stages including dehydration, degradation of organic matters, and decomposition of inorganic minerals and undecomposed organic matters when the heating rate is 15 °C/min. CO2, CO, CH4, some aldehydes and carboxylic acids are the major pyrolysis gas products. Among these gasses, CO2 accounts for a large proportion. The kinetic parameters are different in the different pyrolysis stages. The activation energies and pre-exponential factors are in the range of 59.58~150.30 kJ/mol and 1.64×107~6.03×1011 min-1, respectively.