Examination of multiple approaches to kinetic modelling of biomass pyrolysis: case study on spruce wood powder pyrolysis in nitrogen atmosphere under non-isothermal conditions

Abstract Several approaches to kinetic modelling of biomass pyrolysis were examined and critically evaluated based on a case study of spruce wood powder pyrolysis in nitrogen atmosphere under non-isothermal conditions with different heating rates and carrier gas flow rates. The pyrolysis modelling approaches analyzed: modelling with multiple Gaussians, isoconversional kinetic models by Fridman (FR), Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW), and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS), as well as an integrated kinetics-transport pyrolysis model. The multiple Gaussian model exhibited high quality of fits, with an average coefficient of determination of 0.9933. It was found to be easy to implement, allowed determination of major pseudo-components, and its parameters could be used to estimate kinetic parameters. Isoconversional approaches have a limited range of validity, especially in biomass pyrolysis, and are therefore not recommended for use with biomass pyrolysis thermogravimetric data sets. The newly adapted integrated kinetics-transport pyrolysis model exhibited sufficient quality of fits to the data across a wide range of experimental conditions, indicating robustness and universal applicability to biomass pyrolysis. It also has the potential to be modified to describe the pyrolysis of other materials. The average coefficient of determination, evaluated based on the conversion rate of the integrated kinetics-transport pyrolysis model, was 0.9348. The integrated kinetics-transport pyrolysis model describes both physical and chemical phenomena during the pyrolysis process.