Thermogravimetric analysis of the biomass pyrolysis with copper slag as heat carrier

Thermo gravimetric analysis experiments were carried out on pyrolysis of three kinds of biomasses by temperature programming method. Employed by thermogravimetric analyzer, the effects of the type of biomass and the ratio of copper slag addition on pyrolysis were studied. Biomass pyrolysis process can be divided into four stages, dehydration, pre-pyrolysis, pyrolysis and carbonization. The experimental yields in this paper were modeled by CH4, C2H6, C3H8, C2H4 and C3H6, considering first-order primary reaction and reactions of alkanes and alkenes. Copper slag is beneficial for biomass pyrolysis. With Coats–Redfern method, nonlinear regression of biomass catalytic pyrolysis showed that reaction mechanism of pyrolysis process confirms well with shrinking core model (A3). The kinetic parameters and equations were also calculated. Copper slag promotes both the primary reactions of biomass pyrolysis and the Cracking reactions of alkanes and alkenes, but it cannot decrease the activation energy effectively.