Thermogravimetry study of the pyrolytic characteristics and kinetics of macro-algae Macrocystis pyrifera residue.

Macrocystis pyrifera is one important marine macro-algae, while its residues produced by industrial alginate extraction is a hot potato. To figure out whether its residue is suitable for pyrolysis for biofuel, the pyrolytic characteristics and kinetics of macro-algae M. pyrifera residue was investigated using thermogravimetric method from 50 to 800 °C in an inert argon atmosphere at different heating rates of 5, 10, 20, and 30 °C min. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor was calculated by Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, and Popescu methods, and the kinetic mechanism was deduced by Popescu method. The results showed that the primary devolatilization stage of M. pyrifera residue can be described by Jander function $$ \left(\left[ {1 - \left( {1 - \alpha } \right)^{1/3} } \right]^{2}\right) $$. The average activation energy of M. pyrifera residue was 222.4 kJ mol. The results suggested that the experimental results and kinetic parameters provided useful information for the design of pyrolytic processing system using M. pyrifera residue as feedstock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]