Thermogravimetric study and kinetics of banana peel pyrolysis: a comparison of ‘model-free’ methods

Abstract

In this study, a fixed-bed reactor was designed and fabricated to experiment with pyrolysis of banana peel biomass. A thermogravimetric and kinetic study was performed to estimate the optimal parameters for pyrolysis of banana peel biomass. The banana peel underwent pyrolysis in the reactor at 600 °C for 45–60 min at different heating rates of 5, 10 and 15 °C/min. The bio-oil yield was 11.47, 12.5 and 12.88 mL/100 g of biomass used, respectively. Model-free methods were studied to calculate the activation energy of the pyrolysis of banana peel biomass. The average activation energy for the pyrolysis process calculated using the Kissinger, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Friedman and Coats–Redfern method was found to be 108.42, 167.64, 157.42, 181.27 and 201 kJ/mol, respectively. A gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis and the fuel properties of the banana peel pyro-oil are also discussed. The current study shows that banana peel biomass can be used as a viable source for waste-to-energy conversion.

Keywords:

• Banana peel
• pyrolysis
• pyro-oil
• GC/MS analysis
• kinetics analysis
• economic analysis

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) India: [Grant Number ECR/2016/001304].