TGA-MS studies of the pyrolysis of corn stover for charcoal production

More than two billion people worldwide rely on wood-based fuels for their daily energy needs, which can produce toxic atmospheric contaminants and cause environmental degradation. MIT D-Lab addresses this challenge with "Fuel from the Fields", a simple technique for making charcoal from agricultural waste. In this work, Themogravimetric analysis combined with online mass spectrometry (TGA-MS) was used to study the pyrolysis of corn agricultural waste with the aim of improving understanding of the carbonization process. Non-isothermal mass loss data from TGA was obtained for three types of corn waste, cobs, husks, and stalks; and used to calculate proximate analysis in terms of moisture, volatile matter, and charcoal content. TGA-MS data for the three materials was used to understand the emissions of H20, CO, H2S and C4H2 as a function of temperature. Activation energy, Ea, and pre-exponential factor, A, were calculated using the first order global single reaction model for corn cobs and husks. TG-DTG data suggested that corn cobs are better suited feedstocks for charcoal production. Mass Spectroscopy was found to successfully characterize emissions. For corn cobs, A = 1.3. 105 s-1 and E, = 88.6 kJ/mol, while for husks A = 5.2. 105 s-1 and Ea = 96.4 kJ/mol. Based on this work, a carbonization burn timeline worksheet was created to aid monitoring of char yield in the field.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Corrales Sanchez, Tachmajal Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gwyndaf Jones.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105030

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/105030