Drying and thermal decomposition kinetics of sugarcane straw by nonisothermal thermogravimetric analysis

This work aims the study of the drying (25 +/- 3 degrees C-150 degrees C) and thermal decomposition (150-900 degrees C) of sugarcane straw kinetics in inert and oxidative atmospheres by nonisothermal thermogravimetry (TG) analysis using heating rates of 2.5, 5 and 10 C/min. The drying kinetic analysis was carried out using five models, Lewis, Page, Henderson and Pabis, Midilli and Logaritmic, obtaining the activation energy of 1.25 kJ/mol, in which the Page's model showed to be the most accurate description for both atmospheres. The thermal decomposition kinetics was analyzed through three consecutive reactions scheme, obtaining activation energies of 130, 200 and 56 kJ/mol as well as 200, 350 and 100 kJ/mol for both atmospheres, respectively. The consecutive reaction scheme allowed an excellent agreement between experimental and modeled data, providing a quality of fit similar than the obtained with independent parallel reactions scheme.