Single heating rate methods are a faulty approach to pyrolysis kinetics

Attention is called to numerous publications that have recently appeared in Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery and reported on the application of single heating rate methods to pyrolysis data. Emphasis is laid on the fact that these methods generally fail to determine trustworthy kinetics triplets, i.e., the reaction model, activation energy, and preexponential factor. The reasons and instances of the failure are briefly discussed and illustrated. It is stressed that the International Confederation for Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry recommends single heating rate methods to be avoided and the methods that use several heating rates simultaneously to be employed for reliable kinetic analyses.