Logarithmic Differential Evolution (LDE) for Optimization of Kinetic Parameters in Pyrolysis of Biomass

Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of organic matter under inert atmospheric conditions, leading to the release of volatiles and formation of char. It is also a first step in the biomass gasification. Understanding of kinetic parameters is essential for the design of a suitable pyrolysis reactor. In the proposed kinetic model of this study, the kinetic scheme of biomass decomposition by two competing reactions giving gaseous volatiles and solid charcoal is used. Differential evolution is used to find the kinetic parameters by minimizing the square of the error between the reported experimental data of thermogravimetry of hazelnut shell and simulated model predicted values of residual weight fraction. Logarithmic DE, an improved version of simple DE, is proposed by incorporating logarithmic initialization and logarithmic mutation to take care of wide ranges of variable values. Logarithmic DE is found to yield better kinetic parameters in terms of objective function and gave better fit with experimental data.