Kinetic analysis of Pearl Millet (Penissetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) under pyrolysis and combustion to investigate its bioenergy potential

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 267; p. 117172
• Main Authors: Boubacar Laougé, Zakari, Merdun, Hasan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Activation energy; Bioenergy; Cereal crops; Combustion; Kinetics models; Millet; Pearl Millet; Pyrolysis; Renewable energy; Residues; TGA; Thermal decomposition; Thermodynamics; Thermogravimetric analysis; Thermodynamics; Bioenergy; Pearl Millet; Kinetics models; TGA
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117172

•Pearl Millet is a low-cost and abundant biomass source for bioenergy production.•Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) were performed under inert and air atmospheres.•Isoconversional and model-free kinetic models (FWO and KAS) well represented TGA data.•Pearl Millet is suitable for bioenergy production through thermochemical conversions.
Pearl Millet (Penissetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.), ranked as the sixth most grown cereal crop in the world, is an important food crop produced in Africa and India. In this study, residues of Pearl Millet were used to evaluate its thermal decomposition characteristics through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA was made in the presence of nitrogen and air to represent pyrolysis and combustion, respectively. Thus, five different heating rates were used as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 °C min−1 in the analyses. The kinetics and thermodynamic parameters were determined by using isoconversional models of Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and Kissenger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS). The results showed that the average of activation energy during pyrolysis was 89.63 and 83.89 kJ mol−1, respectively, calculated by the FWO and KAS methods; while it was 57.27 and 49.47 kJ mol−1 in combustion. The low activation energies obtained from both models show that millet residues are suitable for pyrolysis and combustion.