Thermal degradation and kinetic analysis on stembark biomass of melaleuca cajuputi powell (gelam) / Muhamad Razimie Mansor

Melaleuca species (pokok Gelam) are a potential sources of renewable energy,
melaleuca bark can produce the porous carbon materials for hydrogen storage,
which is clean energy solution for future transportation. In this research, stembark
of Melaleuca cajuput; Powell ware washed with distilled water to remove any
contaminant and dirt before dry it at room temperature. After drying, it was
shredded into smaller size for process crushed and grinded into powdered form. In
pyrolysis process, powdered stembark of Melaleuca cajuput; Powell were
investigate in a non-isothermal thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) in order to
determine the degradation behavior of powdered stembark. There are two stage
present, which first stage due to the elimination of moisture content and small
amount of volatile matter compound and second stage is the place where plant
biomass (hemicellulos, cellulose and lignin) degrade. The main decomposition of
samples occurred between 230 - 387°C, at heating rate 10°C/min, corresponds to
the degradation of 63.47% of volatile matter. Weight loss of sample, was strongly
affected by heating rates. It was found that an increasing in heating rates results in
a shift of thermograms to higher temperature. Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier
Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR.) was performed to determine the possible chemical
functional groups present in stembark of Melaleuca cajuputi Powell. From the
ATR-FTIR. analysis, there were volatile components that found. such as CO, H20,
O-H, and cyclic and C02. Results showed that. stem bark of Melaleuca cajuput
Powell can be characterized as high volatile matter and low ash components
compared to other biomasses. The activation energy of Melaleuca cajuputi Powell,
was calculated by using model free FLYNN-WALL-OZAWA (FWO) and
Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) methods and ranges value were 17.15 - 32.6
kJ/mol and 17.35 - 30.04 kJ/mol, respectively.