Title: Kinetic study of non-isothermal co-pyrolysis of tyre crumb with eucalyptus sawdust

Authors: Peter T. Cherop; Sammy L. Kiambi; Paul Musonge

Addresses: Department of Chemical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa

Abstract: The non-isothermal model-free and model-fitting kinetics of co-pyrolysis of tyre crumb (TC) with eucalyptus sawdust (ESD) was investigated in this study. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted at heating rates of 2, 5 and 10°C min⁻¹ in nitrogen environment at a temperature ramp of 20-600°C. The data from TGA was employed to determine the activation energies (E) by applying Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW) and Friedman (FR) models, while the pre-exponential factors were determined using the Coats-Redfern (CR) method. The average activation energies obtained were 150.29 kJ/mol and 147.29 kJ/mol using OFW and FR methods respectively. The relationship between E and conversion degree, as evidenced by goodness-of-fit tests, appeared to be of sixth degree polynomial kind. The first, second, and third reaction order mechanisms yielded mean pre-exponential factors of 2.73E+03 min⁻¹, 1.72E+06 min⁻¹ and 5.54E+09 min⁻¹ respectively. Results indicate that the first order reaction model best describes the co-pyrolysis mechanism.

Keywords: tyre crumb; eucalyptus sawdust; ESD; thermogravimetric analysis; TGA; model-free; model-fitting; non-isothermal kinetics; kinetic study; activation energy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2018.092727

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2018 Vol.21 No.2/3, pp.184 - 200

Received: 29 Nov 2017
Accepted: 14 Apr 2018
Published online: 28 Jun 2018 *

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