Kinetics mechanism of inert and oxidative torrefaction of biomass

Torrefaction of biomass is a promising pre-treatment process capable substantially improving the properties raw for its use as solid biofuel, among many other potential applications. Oxygen-lean torrefaction can effectively reduce cost and complexity inert torrefaction. In this work, tests crushed olive stones were conducted in thermogravimetric analyzer various oxygen concentrations, under both non-isothermal isothermal conditions. Non-isothermal measurements used to gain fundamental knowledge on oxidative processes by applying model-fitting kinetics method. Analysis these showed that an accurate description based two-step reaction mechanism possible, whereas three-step necessary The new was found be describing global mass loss during torrefaction, obtaining average root mean squared errors between model predictions TGA below 2.0 % stones. Furthermore, using extended good agreement with more reactions derived from analysis measurements.