Pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of palm fiber in a closed reactor

As one of the abundant sources of biomass, palm fiber was investigated to convert into liquid and gas products through pyrolysis. Pyrolysis characteristics of palm fiber were studied by using thermogravimetric analysis in the temperature range of 30–800 °C with the various heating rates of 5–20 °C/min. Palm fiber was also pyrolyzed in a closed tubing reactor at 340, 350 and 360 °C with various retention times from 1 to 5 min. The influence of the pyrolysis conditions on the product yields was investigated. The maximum yields of gas and liquid products, 10.3 and 32.8 wt%, respectively, were obtained after pyrolysis at 360 °C for 5 min. The gas product was analyzed by GC with FID detector. The reaction pathway was investigated based on the calculated kinetic constants.