Thermal degradation and kinetics analysis of imperata cylindrica biomass / Rozalia Syqirah Amrina Mohd Rozali

Renewable fuel that derived from the plant biomass was the one of the good
alternatives to replace the limited and non-environmentally friendly fossil
fuel. The research presents the physical characteristics of Imperata cylindrica
(I.c) biomass using TGA and ATR FT-IR instrument. In TGA, the degradation
of biomass component such as hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin occur in
two stages that release volatile components. By ATR FT-IR, the volatile
components can be determine by interpreting the spectrum peak produced. In
the proximate analysis, the moisture content, ash, fixed carbon and volatile
matter were calculated as 9.7, 7.89, 10.47 and 71.94 weight % respectively
after heated in oven and burned in furnace. While, the result that obtained
from TG/DTG curve were used for the kinetic analysis of1e biomass. In this
analysis two kinetic model which is Kissinger-Akihira-Sunose (KAS) and
Flynn-WaIl-Ozawa (FWO) model were used to obtain the activation energy
Ea. From the result, the range of activation energy for FWO model was
36.552-120.632 kJ.mol-1 and for KAS was 32.173-117.793 kJ.mol-1 were
obtained. This result can be compared to the previous research to know the
potential of I.c biomass as renewable fuel.