Pyrolysis of Musa balbisiana flower petal using thermogravimetric studies

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 265; pp. 236 - 246
• Main Authors: Sriram, Aswin, Swaminathan, Ganapathiraman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Activation energy; Musa balbisiana; Pyrolysis; Reaction kinetics; Thermogravimetric studies; Pyrolysis; Musa balbisiana; Activation energy; Thermogravimetric studies; Reaction kinetics
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.05.043

•Solid waste generated from banana cultivation is high in India.•Pyrolysis of Musa balbisiana male bud petals has not been attempted before.•The pyrolysis reactivity of male bud increases with respect to increase in heating rate.•Activation energy was estimated and compared with various kinetic models.•On comparison with other biomasses, male bud is suggested as potential feedstock fuel. In the present study, thermogravimetric analysis of Musa balbisiana flower petal was carried out to study the degradation behaviour and the kinetics in the pyrolytic reaction. The pyrolysis was carried out in the temperature range of 35–900 °C at different heating rates of 5, 10 and 20 °C/min. The kinetics was investigated using different models like Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS), Flynn–Ozawa–Wall (FOW), Friedman and Broido’s plot. The average Ea values determined by KAS, FOW and Friedman methods were 137.94, 136.76 and 133.36 kJ/mol respectively. Coats–Redfern method was utilized to determine the pre-exponential factors and the reaction order of the pyrolysis. For the conversion rates 0.1 and 0.2, both Valensi and Ginstling diffusion models were found out to be appropriate for the solid state reaction mechanism. The HHV of Musa balbisiana flower petal was 16.35 MJ/kg, suggested as a potential bio-feedstock energy source from agro-waste.