Thermogravimetric and kinetic analysis of orange peel using isoconversional methods

A kinetic study of pyrolysis of dried orange peel is performed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermogravimetry (DTG). The degradation kinetics are investigated at 1, 5, 10 & 20 °C/min of heating rates in TGA equipment. The results obtained indicated that the process is parted into four stages. The activation energy is calculated using isoconversional methods like KAS, OFW, and Starink methods. Whereas the pre-exponential factors are calculated using KAS and OFW methods. The activation energy for these models ranges between 28 KJ/mol and 90 KJ/mol and the pre-exponential factors range between 107 min−1 and 1013 min−1. The activation energy versus conversion study shows that the activation energy is increasing with conversion and it is almost same for the proposed three methods.