Catalytic and Non-Catalytic Pyrolysis of Rice Husk Biomass: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analyses Using the Coats-Redfern Method

Abstract

The Coats-Redfern method for model-fitting and its correlation coefficients for various models were used to identify the catalytic and non-catalytic pyrolysis of rice husk biomass kinetics by using the thermogravimetric data. The rice husk was mixed with each catalyst (MTES-beta-zeolite, beta-zeolite, commercial beta-zeolite) at a ratio of 1:0.03 by mass. According to the thermogravimetric data, thermal degradation for catalytic and noncatalytic pyrolysis of rice husk biomass occurred at 250 ° C to 550 ° C. Section I (250- 360 °C) and Section II (450-550 °C) of thermal degradation were identified, and the best acceptable models for the behavior of catalytic and non-catalytic biomass pyrolysis were found. All reaction models, including diffusion-controlled reaction, chemical reaction, power-law model, Avrami Erofeev equation, and phase boundary, were kinetically characterized, and they described the nature of biomass pyrolysis. From the activation energy trends, it can be understood that MTES beta-zeolite has no significant effect on pyrolysis in Section I but has significant effects in Section II. The beta-zeolite and commercial beta-zeolite gave better results for all reaction models in both sections by lowering the activation energies for catalytic pyrolysis of rice husk biomass compared to those for non-catalytic pyrolysis. Kinetic analysis of reaction models F1, F1.5, D2, D3, and D4 described appropriate results that are in approximation with each other for both sections.