KINETIC MODELLING OF THE PYROLYSIS OF MANGO LEAVES, LITCHI LEAVES, AND MAGNOLIA CHAMPACA LEAVES

Abstract

Waste mango leaves and waste litchi leaves are the potential biomasses for the production of biofuels. Though the waste leaves of magnolia champaca trees doesn’t show the high credibility towards the production of biofuels but using it with the blend of waste mango leaves and waste litchi leaves makes the utilization of waste generated from green yards in a most optimum way. To mark the credibility of the three biomasses viz mango leaves, litchi leaves and magnolia champaca leaves for the production of biofuels, the kinetic study, thermodynamic study and physicochemical characterization of them is done in this study. Further, mechanism of the pyrolysis process of all the three biomasses is studied. The TGA analysis of all the three biomasses has been done. The activation energy for the pyrolysis process of all the biomasses are determined from the three model free methods namely Ozawa Flynn Wall(OFW) method, Kissinger Akahira Sunose(KAS) method and Friedman method. The pre exponential factor is determined using the Kissinger Akahira Sunose(KAS) equation. Reaction order of the overall pyrolysis process of all the three biomasses is determined using Coats-Redfern method. The thermodynamic parameters namely change in gibbs free energy, change in enthalpy and change in entropy is determined using the Thermodynamic equations described in the literature. The proximate and ultimate analysis of all the biomasses are done in order to determine the exact composition of ash, moisture, volatile matter, carbon, oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen in them and with the help of the results of proximate analysis, higher heating values of all the biomasses are determined. In this study, the moisture content, ash content and higher heating value of mango leaves are determined to be 4.39%, 71.72% and 15.39 MJ/Kg respectively. The moisture content, ash content and higher heating value of litchi leaves are determined to be 5.58%, 73.25% and 16.25 MJ/Kg respectively. The moisture content, ash content and higher heating value of magnolia champaca leaves are determined to be 4.5%, 69.07% and 13.15 MJ/Kg respectively. The volatile matter in mango leaves and litchi leaves is higher than that in magnolia champaca showing the higher reactivity of mango leaves and litchi leaves.