CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Cuyo Region, generates a significant quantity of agro-industrial wastes. To exploit this wastes for energy production, a combustor was installed in this region. To improve its design and operation, the kinetic study of six agro-industrial wastes combustion, using TGA analysis, was realized. The results show that this phenomenon occurs in four stages: drying, devolatilization, char combustion and residual combustion. Maximum weight loss occurs during devolatilization stage, followed by the char combustion.The contraction geometry´s model describe the devolatilization, indicating that the degradation rate is controlled by the resulting reaction interface progress toward the solid center. Moreover, the first order reaction model describes the char combustion stages, showing that the reaction rate is proportional to remaining reactant(s) fraction.The highest energy activation values were obtained for sawdust at heating rate equal to 10K/min and plum pits at heating rate equal to 15K/min for devolatilization and char combustion, respectively, presenting slower reaction rate and more difficulty of a reaction starting.For both analyzed stages, the activation energy values vary slightly with the heating rate. This variation can be due to the kinetic rate is controlled by the occurrence of physical transformation. It does not depends on mass but it depends on temperature.