Pyrolysis kinetics behavior of solid leather wastes

In the leather industry, considerable amounts of non-recyclable solid leather wastes (SLWs) are produced and accumulated in factories. In this work, the non-isothermal thermochemical analysis (TGA) test was used to analyse the thermal degradation behaviour of chromium-tanned leather shaving, which is one of the main SLWs. The pyrolysis experiments were carried out under nitrogen atmosphere from 30 to 800 degrees C at different heating rates of 5, 10, 15 and 20 degrees C/min. Three different kinetic models, including the FlynnWall-Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Kissinger methods, were used to calculate the kinetic parameters. The activation energy values calculated by FWO and KAS methods were 391.79 and 348.77 kJ/mol, respectively. In consideration of the high HHV (14.15 MJ/kg) and carbon productivity (10.15%), SLWs could represent a potential candidate material for bioenergy production and carbon preparation. These results could be used for the design of thermochemical conversion processes utilizing SLWs as feedstock. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.