Efstathia Kontothanasi, "Thermodynamic properties of biomass and plastic biochars", Diploma Work, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece, 2024
https://doi.org/10.26233/heallink.tuc.101017
The aim of this study was to produce biochar for electrical and thermal energy generation and to investigate the thermal efficiency and the kinetic and thermogravimetric parameters of biochars produced from the pyrolysis of olive kernel (OK) and sea grass (SG) biomass (Oceania Posidonia) with the addition of polypropylene (PP). The pyrolysis process was carried out at three different temperatures (300, 400 and 600 °C), while the physicochemical characteristics of the produced biochars were studied. Proximate analysis, elemental analysis and thermogravimetric measurements were conducted to further investigate the samples. Then, surface structure and morphology (SEM-EDX) and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) were performed. Based on the data, the free kinetic models of the Ozawa-FlynnWall (OFW) and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) were applied to estimate the kinetic (activation energy and pre-exponential factor) and thermodynamic parameters (enthalpy, free Gibb energy and entropy changes). The values of activation energy (Ea) for the olive kernel biochar OK400, OK/PP400 and BCOK400/PP400 were 113.04, 114.86 and 77.46 kJ/mol, while for the Oceanica Posidonia biochar SG400, SG/PP400, BCSG400/PP400, Ea values were 242.54, 220.46 and 143.35 kJ/mol. The addition of PP improved the thermodynamic and kinetic indices as well as the pretreatment of BCOK400/PP400 and BCSG400/PP400 biochars. The results highlight significant opportunities in the agricultural industry for biofuel production.