Insights into pyrolytic feedstock potential of date palm industry wastes: Kinetic study and product characterization

Abstract This paper aims to study the pyrolysis characteristics of primary residues from industrial date palm processing, namely Fruit stalks pruning (FSP) and Date Palm petiole (DPP) biomasses, and evaluate their potential as a raw material for the pyrolysis process. TG-DTG analyses were performed on the raw material FSP and DPP to inspect the thermal degradation of samples at a range of heating rates within an inert atmosphere. Kinetic parameters, such as activation energy and pre-exponential factor for pyrolysis of (FSP) and (DPP), were calculated by the Distributed Activation Energy Model. As for the kinematic parameters obtained, the activation energy ranged from 110.92 to 120.08 kJ/mol for FSP and from 113.90 to 132.39 kJ/mol for DPP. Pyrolysis experiments were performed using a fixed bed reactor at a heating rate of 15 °C/min−1. The maximum liquid product yield was acquired at 500 °C. For the syngas production, the highest yield was obtained at 600 °C. The highest production of bio-char at a low temperature of 450 °C, and it decreased considerably with rising temperature. Evaluation of the kinetic parameters with physicochemical analysis illustrates the promising bio-energy potential of the two studied biomasses.