Kinetic study and pyrolysis characteristics of algal and lignocellulosic biomasses

A comparative kinetic study on the pyrolysis of six algal and lignocellulosic biomasses was performed and six heating rates were employed to obtain the kinetic equations and analyze the compensation effect. Due to complexity, the whole pyrolysis process of algal biomass was divided into two reaction zones in which the analysis was carried out individually. The activation energies were first evaluated within the conversion range of 0.05 to 0.95, which were 125-147 kJ/mol and 113-138 kJ/mol for lignocellulosic biomass and zone-1 of algal biomass, respectively. Regression analysis was also conducted to determine the appropriate kinetic model. Moreover, Z(alpha) master plots suggested that the nucleation model was dominant at lower and higher temperatures for lignocellulosic biomass. Besides, the pre-exponential factor was calculated and a compensation effect between activation energies and pre-exponential factors was completely observed in zone-2 of algal biomass and partially seen in zone-1 of algal biomass and lignocellulosic biomass.