Kinetic Study of Thermal Degradation of a Lignin Nanoparticle-Reinforced Phenolic Foam

Authors: Juan C. Domínguez, Belén Del Saz-Orozco, María V. Alonso, Mercedes Oliet, Francisco Rodríguez

Abstract:

In the present study, the kinetics of thermal degradation of a phenolic and lignin reinforced phenolic foams, and the lignin used as reinforcement were studied and the activation energies of their degradation processes were obtained by a DAEM model. The average values for five heating rates of the mean activation energies obtained were: 99.1, 128.2, and 144.0 kJ.mol-1 for the phenolic foam; 109.5, 113.3, and 153.0 kJ.mol-1 for the lignin reinforcement; and 82.1, 106.9, and 124.4 kJ.mol-1 for the lignin reinforced phenolic foam. The standard deviation ranges calculated for each sample were 1.27-8.85, 2.22-12.82, and 3.17-8.11 kJ.mol-1 for the phenolic foam, lignin and the reinforced foam, respectively. The DAEM model showed low mean square errors (<1x10-5), proving that is a suitable model to study the kinetics of thermal degradation of the foams and the reinforcement.

Keywords: Kinetics, lignin, phenolic foam, thermal degradation.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1106019

References:

[1] J. C. Dominguez, M. Oliet, M. V. Alonso, M. A. Gilarranz, and F. Rodriguez. “Thermal stability and pyrolysis kinetics of organosolv lignins obtained from Eucalyptus globulus,” Ind. Crop. Prod., vol. 27, no. 2, pp.150-156, 2008.
[2] G. J. Pitt, “The kinetics of the evolution of volatile products from coal.” Fuel, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 267-274, 1962.
[3] J. Cai, T. Li, and R. Liu, “A critical study of the Miura–Maki integral method for the estimation of the kinetic parameters of the distributed activation energy model.” Bioresour. Technol., vol. 102, no. 4, pp. 3894- 3899, 2011.
[4] J. Cai, W. Wu, and R. Liu, “An overview of distributed activation energy model and its application in the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass.” Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 236-246, 2014.
[5] B. de Caprariis, P. De Filippis, C. Herce, and N. Verdone, “Double- Gaussian distributed activation energy model for coal devolatilization.” Energy & Fuels, vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 6153-6159, 2012.
[6] J. Zhang, T. Chen, J. Wu, and J. Wu, “Multi-Gaussian-DAEM-reaction model for thermal decompositions of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin: Comparison of N2 and CO2 atmosphere.” Bioresour. Technol., vol. 166, no. 1, pp. 87-95, 2014.
[7] L. Gašparovič, J. Labovský, J. Markoš, and L. Jelemenský, “Calculation of kinetic parameters of the thermal decomposition of wood by distributed activation energy model (DAEM).” Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q., vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 45-53, 2012.
[8] G. Jiang, D. J. Nowakowski, and A. V. Bridgwater, “A systematic study of the kinetics of lignin pyrolysis.” Thermochim. Acta, vol. 498, no. 1–2, pp. 61-66, 2010.
[9] T. Mani, P. Murugan, and N. Mahinpey, “Determination of distributed activation energy model kinetic parameters using simulated annealing optimization method for nonisothermal pyrolysis of lignin.” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 1464-1467, 2008.
[10] H. R. Azimi, M. Rezaei, and F. Abbasi, “Thermo-oxidative degradation of MMA–St copolymer and EPS lost foams: Kinetics study.” Thermochim. Acta, vol. 488, no. 1–2, pp. 43-48, 2009.
[11] P. Kannan, J. J. Biernacki, and D. P. Visco Jr, “A review of physical and kinetic models of thermal degradation of expanded polystyrene foam and their application to the lost foam casting process.” J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis, vol. 78, no. 1, pp. 162-171, 2007.