A kinetic study on the devolatilisation of animal derived byproducts

The thermal degradation characteristics and chemical kinetics of meat and bone meals (MBM) during the volatiles release stage are investigated by thermogravimetry. In addition to the characterization of the animal by-product, a TA Q600 thermogravimetric analyser was used to evaluate the devolatilisation behaviour and determine the kinetic parameters over the temperature range of 30–1000 °C. Non-isothermal pyrolysis tests were conducted at ambient pressure, for four heating rates (5, 20, 50 and 100 °C/min), and particle sizes being between 150–250 μm. The independent parallel, first order, reactions model was used for the simulation of the pyrolysis data, while the effect of mineral matter presence on kinetic constants was evaluated. MBM decomposition presented two distinct weight loss steps and increased conversion rates were attained at higher heating regimes. The model elaborated to describe the thermal devolatilisation of MBM considers four fractions decomposing simultaneously. Accurate predictions of experimental data were achieved in all test cases. Demineralisation resulted in enhanced kinetic constants for the pseudo-reactions at the lower temperature regions.