Assessment of tire devolatilization kinetics

In this paper, a kinetic study of the devolatilization of tire rubber has been performed in a thermobalance using nitrogen as carrier gas. The main operation variables have been studied including flow rate, particle size, final temperature and heating rate, observing that only temperature has a remarkable effect on tire rubber conversion. Kinetic parameters have been calculated and used to simulate all experimental curves including the ones obtained at different heating rates. In addition, an approximate tire rubber composition has been obtained by integrating the reaction rate versus temperature curves. The suitability of the kinetic parameters has been demonstrated in real conditions by performing experiments in a fixed bed reactor. Finally, the conclusions achieved from this study can be used not only for pyrolysis process design but also for the interpretation and modeling of the tire rubber combustion process.