Affiliations 

  • 1 Bioenergy Research Centre, Department of Bioinformatics & Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
  • 2 Bioenergy Research Centre, Department of Bioinformatics & Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan. Electronic address: draamer@gcuf.edu.pk
  • 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Al-Balqa'a Applied University, Amman, Jordan
  • 4 College of Bioengineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong 643000, People's Republic of China
  • 5 Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
  • 6 Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 7 Chemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 1145, Saudi Arabia; UR Physico-Chimie des Materiaux Solides, Chemistry Department, Science College, Tunis El Manar University, 2092 Tunis, Tunisia
  • 8 Soil Salinity Research Institute, Pindi Bhattian, Pakistan
Bioresour Technol, 2017 Jan;224:708-713.
PMID: 27838316 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.10.090

Abstract

The biomass of Urochloa mutica was subjected to thermal degradation analyses to understand its pyrolytic behavior for bioenergy production. Thermal degradation experiments were performed at three different heating rates, 10, 30 and 50°Cmin-1 using simultaneous thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimetric analyzer, under an inert environment. The kinetic analyses were performed using isoconversional models of Kissenger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO). The high heating value was calculated as 15.04MJmol-1. The activation energy (E) values were shown to be ranging from 103 through 233 kJmol-1. Pre-exponential factors (A) indicated the reaction to follow first order kinetics. Gibbs free energy (ΔG) was measured to be ranging from 169 to 173kJmol-1 and 168 to 172kJmol-1, calculated by KAS and FWO methods, respectively. We have shown that Para grass biomass has considerable bioenergy potential comparable to established bioenergy crops such as switchgrass and miscanthus.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.