Investigation of Hazelnut Husk Combustion by using A Novel Non-linear Kinetic Model through Thermogravimetric Analysis

Abstract

Considering economic and environmental issues, boosting renewable energy source is the main subject to fulfill energy demand in these days. Biomass as natural and abundant energy source can be typically used to produce electricity, fuels and heat applying thermochemical conversion processes such as combustion, pyrolysis or gasification. Biomass combustion is the most common process to produce electricity and useful heat in Turkey and all over the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the considerable influence of heating rates on combustion characteristics and kinetics employing a new developed non-linear kinetic model for hazelnut husk samples through thermogravimetric analysis. Furthermore, this work comprehensively assesses the variations in the reactivity of hazelnut husk combustion, expressed from thermogravimetric curves. The non-linear kinetic model developed in this study integrates the various kinetic pathway to estimate the major controlling parameter of combustion reactivity, its activation energy, pre-exponential factor and reaction order. According to comparison of results from the non-linear kinetic model for volatile combustion and fixed carbon combustion, correlation coefficients (R 2 ) for both models are higher than 0.9985. These results proved the non-linear regression model for kinetic pathways in combustion reactivity worked properly to estimate thermal decomposition behavior.