Thermo gravimetric and kinetic studies on dried solid waste of post-methanated distillery effluent under oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere

This work seeks for the possibility of using solid waste generated by drying the post-methanated distillery effluent, as fuel. TGA has been employed to analyse the kinetics of thermal degradation of the solid waste at different heating rates of 10, 20, 30, and 40 degrees C min(-1) in pyrolysis and combustion modes. In combustion mode, the activation energy changes from 253.58 to 87.91 kJ mol(-1), corresponding to the changes in heating rates of 10 degrees C min(-1) to 40 degrees C min(-1), whereas, there is no significant change of activation energy in pyrolysis mode. The Arrhenius equation based kinetic model with regression analysis using LINEST function is able to predict the kinetic variables of dried solid waste in both the modes. Solid waste almost completely degrades at the end of isothermal condition in pyrolysis mode. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.