Devolatilisation kinetics and pyrolytic analyses of Tectona grandis (teak)

A O Balogun; O A Lasode; A G McDonald

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2014.01.007

Devolatilisation kinetics and pyrolytic analyses of Tectona grandis (teak)

Bioresour Technol. 2014 Mar:156:57-62. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.01.007. Epub 2014 Jan 13.

Authors

A O Balogun¹, O A Lasode², A G McDonald¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1132, USA.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. Electronic address: oalasode@yahoo.com.

PMID: 24486938
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.01.007

Abstract

Devolatilisation kinetics and pyrolytic analyses were carried out on Tectona grandis (teak) using iso-conversional methods (Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Starink) and analytical Py-GC/MS technique respectively. Proximate and elemental analyses were also performed and they showed that the ash and C contents and the HHV were 0.7%, 49.6% and 19.8MJ/kg respectively. Biomass sample was subjected to multiple heating rates (5-35K/min) in thermogravimetric experiments and kinetic parameters were evaluated from the non-isothermal TGA curves. The activation energy (E) varied between 222 and 300kJ/mol as a function of degree of conversion. Similarly, the pre-exponential frequency factor (A) varied between 9.6×10(17) and 9.55×10(24)min(-1). Analytical Py-GC/MS showed the presence of CO2, acetic acid, furan+2-butanone, levoglucosan, trans-coniferyl alcohol and lignin derivatives. The proportion of phenolic compounds identified was more than one-third with isoeugenol, acetoguaiacone, and 4-vinylguaiacol showing dominance.

Keywords: Analytical pyrolysis; Biomass; Devolatilisation kinetics; Teak; Thermogravimetric analysis.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Kinetics
Lamiaceae / chemistry*
Temperature*
Thermogravimetry
Time Factors
Volatilization