TY - JOUR
T1 - A comprehensive study on pyrolysis kinetics of microalgal biomass
AU - Bach, Quang Vu
AU - Chen, Wei Hsin
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors also acknowledge the financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C. , under the contracts MOST 102-2221-E-006-288-MY3 and MOST 105-2811-E-006-003 for this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Pyrolysis of microalgal biomass for biofuels production has attracted much attention. However, detailed degradation mechanism and kinetics of the process have not been fully explored yet. In this study, a non-isothermal pyrolysis of microalga Chlorella vulgaris ESP-31 is thermogravimetrically investigated. Several kinetic models, from a single reaction to seven parallel reactions, are tested to fit the experimental pyrolysis data for finding out the optimal pyrolysis model. The results show that the pyrolysis behavior of the microalga is somewhat different from that of lignocellulosic biomass, stemming from the inherent difference in their compositions. Overall, the kinetic modeling processes show that increasing the number of reactions improves the model fit quality. Curve fitting results indicate that the models consisting of three and less than three reactions are not suitable for microalga pyrolysis. The four-reaction model, via considering the pyrolysis of carbohydrate, protein, lipid and others, can be employed for modeling the thermal degradation; however, it cannot precisely predict the thermal degradation of the shoulder and the small peak. The conducted seven-reaction model further partitions the decomposition processes of carbohydrate and protein into two stages, and explains the thermal degradation well. The model indicates that the devolatilization peak is attributed to the combined degradation of Protein I and Carbohydrate II. The seven-reaction model offers the highest fit quality and is thus recommended for predicting the microalga pyrolysis processes.
AB - Pyrolysis of microalgal biomass for biofuels production has attracted much attention. However, detailed degradation mechanism and kinetics of the process have not been fully explored yet. In this study, a non-isothermal pyrolysis of microalga Chlorella vulgaris ESP-31 is thermogravimetrically investigated. Several kinetic models, from a single reaction to seven parallel reactions, are tested to fit the experimental pyrolysis data for finding out the optimal pyrolysis model. The results show that the pyrolysis behavior of the microalga is somewhat different from that of lignocellulosic biomass, stemming from the inherent difference in their compositions. Overall, the kinetic modeling processes show that increasing the number of reactions improves the model fit quality. Curve fitting results indicate that the models consisting of three and less than three reactions are not suitable for microalga pyrolysis. The four-reaction model, via considering the pyrolysis of carbohydrate, protein, lipid and others, can be employed for modeling the thermal degradation; however, it cannot precisely predict the thermal degradation of the shoulder and the small peak. The conducted seven-reaction model further partitions the decomposition processes of carbohydrate and protein into two stages, and explains the thermal degradation well. The model indicates that the devolatilization peak is attributed to the combined degradation of Protein I and Carbohydrate II. The seven-reaction model offers the highest fit quality and is thus recommended for predicting the microalga pyrolysis processes.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.enconman.2016.10.077
DO - 10.1016/j.enconman.2016.10.077
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84996912320
VL - 131
SP - 109
EP - 116
JO - Energy Conversion and Management
JF - Energy Conversion and Management
SN - 0196-8904
ER -