Biomasses pyrolysis and combustion kinetics through n-th order parallel reactions

The decomposition of five different biomass samples was studied in a thermobalance. The samples consisted of esparto grass, straw, Posidonea Oceanic seaweed, waste from urban and agricultural pruning and waste of forest pruning. Both pyrolysis in inert atmosphere and combustion in the presence of oxygen were studied. Different heating rates were used and a global kinetic model, valid for all biomasses at the different conditions studied, was proposed. The kinetic model is able to fit all the runs performed with each biomass sample. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.