Comparison of Combustion and Pyrolysis Behavior of the Peanut Shells in Air and N₂: Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Gas Emissions

The influences of four heating rates on the combustion and pyrolysis behavior in the N-2 and air atmosphere were investigated by the Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. the distributed activation energy model (DEAM) and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) were used to estimate Ea and A, Delta H, Delta G and Delta S. Experimental results showed that the similar thermal behavior emerged, but the temperatures in the air and N-2 atmospheres representing the end of the reaction were about 500 degrees C and 550 degrees C, respectively. The results of FTIR showed the peak positions were basically the same, but the concentrations of aromatics, aldehydes and ketones produced by pyrolysis in the N-2 atmosphere were higher. When the heating rate was 20 K/min, the comprehensive combustion parameters were 56.442 and 6.871 x 10(-7)%(2)/(min(2)center dot K-3) in the air and N-2 atmospheres, respectively, indicating that the peanut shells had great potential to become bioenergy.