Published in

MDPI, Energies, 5(17), p. 1055, 2024

DOI: 10.3390/en17051055

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Co-Pyrolysis of Woody Biomass and Oil Shale—A Kinetics and Modelling Study

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The co-pyrolysis of biomass and fossil fuels has been the subject of studies on sustainable energy. Co-feeding oil shale with woody biomass can contribute to a transition into carbon neutrality. The present study analysed the thermal decomposition behaviour of oil shale and biomass blends (0:1, 3:7, 1:1, 7:3, 9:1, and 1:0) through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) at 80–630 °C with a heating rate of 10 °C/min in CO2 and N2 atmospheres. A comparison of theoretical and experimental residual mass yields of oil shale–biomass mixtures indicated no significant interactions between the fuels. The blends contributed to a decrease of up to 34.4 wt% in solid residues compared to individual pyrolysis of oil shale, and the TGA curves were shifted from up to 10 °C to a lower temperature when the biomass ratio increased. The use of a CO2 atmosphere resulted in the production of solid residues, comparable to the one obtained with the N2 atmosphere. CO2 atmosphere can be used in oil shale–biomass co-pyrolysis, without affecting the decomposition process or increasing the yield of residues. A kinetic model method is proposed based on TGA data at 10, 20, and 30 °C/min. The apparent activation energies for a temperature range of 200–520 °C were in the order of 139, 155, 164, 197, 154, and 167 kJ/mol for oil shale–biomass 0:1, 3:7, 1:1, 7:3, 9:1, and 1:0 blends, respectively. From the isoconversional kinetic analysis, a two-stage pyrolysis was observed, which separated biomass and oil shale pyrolysis. A simulation of biomass and oil shale co-pyrolysis was conducted in Aspen Plus® using TGA-derived kinetic data. The model prediction resulted in a close match with the experimental thermogravimetric data with absolute errors from 1.75 to 3.78%, which highlights the relevance of TGA analysis in simulating co-pyrolysis processes.