Effect of heating rate on the kinetics of gibbsite calcination

•An increase in the heating rate has been confirmed experimentally to be associated with an increase in the specific surface area.•The kinetics of gibbsite calcination reaction for a series of heating rates, low to moderate, are presented.•The activation energy is reduced by a factor of 6.3, when the heating rate is increased by a factor of 10 from <1 °C/s to 10.38–25.43 °C/s.