Waste-to-Energy : A study on Reaction Kinetics of Tropical Wood Sawdust

The reaction kinetics of Iroko and Mahogany were studied using TGA. The pyrolysis process was achieved using six different heating rates of 2,5,8,12,15 and 20˚C. A 15˚C/min heating rate was used for gasification in steam at different temperatures while varying the concentrations of nitrogen and steam in the process. The kinetic parameters, activation energy and pre exponential factor, were obtained by implementing two chosen kinetic models. These models are: Friedman’s Iso-conversional Method, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa Method (FWO). There were substantial differences in the values of the kinetic triplets found from the experiments. Due to the substantial differences in the values, it was not the best way to perform this kind of analysis (which is the traditional way) but instead to use pure regression analysis; but using it for the whole data set (that means for all heating rates) and minimize the difference with experimental data