TGA-FTIR characterisation of bamboo wood, napier grass, pine wood and peach pips for gasification applications

Abstract

The pyrolysis characteristics of four biomass materials (bamboo, Napier grass, pine and peach pips) were studied in an inert atmosphere using a simultaneous TGA-FTIR instrument. The behaviour of these materials under non-isothermal conditions and at three different heating rates (20, 100 and 200 °C/min) were compared. The gasses released during TGA analysis were analysed using inline FTIR. Higher heating rates were found to increase conversion and had lower activation energies. Napier grass has the lowest conversion which could be due to the amount of silicon contained in most grasses. A distinguishable hemicellulose decomposition peak was detected on the DTG curve of the peach pips. Pine wood has the highest conversion (~88%) of the four biomass materials. The mean conversion achieved for the other materials was approximately 75%. The kinetic parameters of each material computed using a model fitting method are reported. The dehydration stage in general displayed lower activation energies than the active and passive pyrolysis stages.