Biorefinery potential of Typha domingensis biomass to produce bioenergy and biochemicals assessed through pyrolysis, thermogravimetry, and TG-FTIR-GCMS-based study

Rising demands for bioenergy and green products have led researchers to explore alternative, sustainable, and cost-effective feedstocks for biorefinery, among which perennial grasses adapted to marginal lands offer cost-effective and sustainable biomass to produce bioenergy and biochemicals without creating any competition with the agricultural lands. The current study investigated the biorefinery potential of a fast-growing perennial grass Typha domingensis. Its biomass was pyrolyzed at 10, 20, 40, and 80 degrees C min(-1) in a Thermogravimeter analyzer. The kinetics and thermodynamics features of pyrolysis were computed through Starink, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa models. The main pyrolysis reaction occurred during the second stage at 200-380 degrees C at the corresponding conversions (alpha) of 0.2 to 0.6. The average activation energies, Gibb's free energies, and High Heating Values ranged between 100-150 kJ mol(-1), 208-210 kJ mol(-1), and 17.699 MJ kg(-1), respectively. The lower (< 5 kJ mol(-1)) differences between the enthalpy change and activation energies at each conversion showed a thermodynamically favored reaction. The FTIR-based prominent spectral absorptions were observed at 600-800 cm(-1), bending at 1004 cm(-1), and stretching at 1644 and 3090 cm(-1) which suggested the occurrence of halides and alkenes. The strong stretching bands at 1700-1725 cm(-1), and bending at 1415 cm(-1) indicated the presence of carbonyl, alcoholic, and/or carboxylic functional groups. The GC-MS-based chromatogram confirmed the presence of alkanes, alcohols, organic acids, esters, ketones, aldehydes, amides, and amines. These data indicated that T. domingensis has a substantial potential to become a feedstock of a sustainable biorefinery to produce bioenergy and biochemicals.

Automated summary

The study revealed that the fast-growing perennial grass Typha domingensis has the potential to become a sustainable feedstock for biorefinery to produce bioenergy and biochemicals through pyrolysis.