Kinetics of pyrolysis and combustion of pine needles and cones

A wide kinetic study has been carried out under different conditions in TG and TG-MS for each material, at different operating conditions. Runs were carried out at three different atmospheres: N(2), N(2):O(2) 4:1 and N(2):O(2) 9:1. In addition to the dynamic runs carried out at constant heating rate, other runs were performed in an isothermal regime (constant heating rate until the set temperature is reached and then the set temperature is maintained constant). In addition, a study of the thermal decomposition for both materials was also carried out in a dynamic run using TG-MS in order to observe the evolution of the major compounds and to discuss the information that could be obtained. From the overall analysis of the data, schemes of reactions and kinetic values were calculated by integration of the differential equations and minimizing the squared differences between the experimental and calculated values. It is important to emphasise that the same set of parameters is proposed for the runs for each material, and depends on neither the heating rate in dynamic runs nor whether the run is carried Out in a dynamic or isothermal mode. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.