Kinetic studies on the pyrolysis of pinewood

• Model free kinetic studies on pyrolysis of pine wood.
• Determination of kinetic triplet from TG analysis using isoconversional methods.
• Prediction of kinetic mechanism using master plots and compensation effect.
• Isothermal predictions from non-isothermal data for validation of kinetic results.

The kinetic study for pyrolysis of pine wood has been studied by a thermogravimetric analyzer in an inert atmosphere. Non isothermal model free kinetic methods were used to evaluate kinetics at six different heating rates of 5–40 °C/min. Three zones can be detected from the iso-conversional plot of pine with average activation energy values of 134.32 kJ/mol, 146.89 kJ/mol and 155.76 kJ/mol in the conversion range of 1–22%, 24–84% and 85–90%, respectively. The activation energy values were used to determine the reaction mechanism using master plots and compensation parameters. The results show that the pyrolysis process of pine wood can be described by two dimensional diffusion reaction mechanism in a wide range of conversion up to 0.7, followed by close to one and half order reaction mechanism. The kinetic results were validated by making isothermal predictions from non-isothermal data.