Investigation of the slow pyrolysis kinetics of olive oil pomace using thermo-gravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry

In this study, slow pyrolysis characteristics of olive oil pomace were investigated by using thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry. The major pyrolysis products identified are H-2, CH4, CO, CO2. Their evolution profiles with respect to temperature enable a realistic evaluation of weight loss results. The chemical structure of the olive oil pomace was analyzed using FTIR. Thermogravimetric analysis results have been utilized to determine kinetic parameters by using model fitting (Coats Redfern method), model free (ASTM E698, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, Friedman methods) and nonlinear regression analysis approaches. Comparative evaluation of the kinetic results indicate that the multivariate regression analysis is an appropriate method to derive kinetic models which give reliable results for the whole temperature range especially in multi-step reactions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.