The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of using industrial lignin instead of pulverized coal as a reducing agent for the production of direct reduced iron (DRI), thus reducing CO2 emissions. The pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of pulverized coal and industrial lignin were studied by nonisothermal thermogravimetry. In the three stages of pyrolysis, the weight loss rate of industrial lignin is higher than that of pulverized coal. The volatile matter of industrial lignin is easier to release than that of pulverized coal, but the coking process is longer than that of pulverized coal. The activation energies of pyrolysis of Lu'an anthracite (LA), Shen'mu bituminous coal (SM), alkali lignin (AL), and magnesium lignosulfonate (ML) were 71.10, 70.30, 55.20, and 37.34 kJ·mol-1 at the middle-temperature stage, and 133.64, 98.31, 57.78, and 46.68 kJ·mol-1 at the high-temperature stage, respectively. After pyrolysis, a few nanometer thick carbon film structure appears in alkali lignin coke, which is conducive to the reduction of iron ore powder.
The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of using industrial lignin instead of pulverized coal as a reducing agent for the production of direct reduced iron (DRI), thus reducing CO2 emissions. The pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of pulverized coal and industrial lignin were studied by nonisothermal thermogravimetry. In the three stages of pyrolysis, the weight loss rate of industrial lignin is higher than that of pulverized coal. The volatile matter of industrial lignin is easier to release than that of pulverized coal, but the coking process is longer than that of pulverized coal. The activation energies of pyrolysis of Lu'an anthracite (LA), Shen'mu bituminous coal (SM), alkali lignin (AL), and magnesium lignosulfonate (ML) were 71.10, 70.30, 55.20, and 37.34 kJ·mol-1 at the middle-temperature stage, and 133.64, 98.31, 57.78, and 46.68 kJ·mol-1 at the high-temperature stage, respectively. After pyrolysis, a few nanometer thick carbon film structure appears in alkali lignin coke, which is conducive to the reduction of iron ore powder.
The current primary problems
in the ironmaking industry are energy
consumption and CO2 emissions. According to relevant studies,
the CO2 emissions by the iron and steel industry accounts
for 6.7% of the total global CO2 emissions and 16% of the
total industrial CO2 emissions.[1−3] In 2018, an
average of 1.85 tons of CO2 was emitted for every ton of
steel produced.[4] CO2 is the
main culprit causing the greenhouse effect, so reducing CO2 emission is an urgent task for the development of the iron and steel
industry in the future. At present, the mainstream electric arc furnace
(EAF) steelmaking in the world generally uses 50–70% scrap
steel with 50–30% direct reduced iron (DRI). The world’s
DRI production over the years is shown in Figure .[5] In 2018, the
world’s DRI production was 100.49 million tons, exceeding the
landmark of 100 million tons for the first time. Facing the increasing
production capacity of EAF steel and the shortage of scrap resources
in China, DRI has been paid more and more attention by the iron and
steel industry and will usher in a good opportunity for development.
Figure 1
World
DRI production over the years.
World
DRI production over the years.However, the essence of the coal-based direct reduction process
is to use coal, a nonrenewable energy resource, which does not reduce
CO2 emission in essence. Therefore, this study hopes to
find biomass to replace coal as a reducing agent, thus reducing the
use of coal. According to statistics, 200 million tons of black liquor
produced by China’s paper industry every year contains about
20 million tons of industrial lignin.[6] Under
the harsh process conditions in the paper industry, chemical treatment
will lead to the chemical transformation of lignin’s natural
structure, including structural depolymerization, redox, and condensation.[7,8] This transformation makes the structure of lignin highly complex
and difficult to understand, which seriously hinders the exploration
of its applicable and effective value-added methods.[9] The utilization rate of industrial lignin is extremely
low, and it is generally burned as low-grade fuel or made into low-value-added
products such as flocculants[10] and dispersants.[11] Lignin and lignosulfonate have been studied
by many researchers, and the focus of these studies has been on their modification.[12−18] However, the research on using lignin or lignosulfonate as a reducing
agent for producing DRI is still insufficient. If industrial lignin
can be applied to the production of DRI, that is, iron ore powder
can effectively promote the pyrolysis of industrial lignin, while
the pyrolysis products can promote the reduction of iron ore powder.
It can not only save coal resources and reduce CO2 emissions
but also make effective use of the wastes generated by the pulp and
paper industry, which has a very important practical significance
for the development of environmental protection.This work is
mainly in the early exploration stage. Pyrolysis experiments
are carried out on anthracite (LA), bituminous coal (SM), alkali lignin
(AL), and magnesium lignosulfonate (ML) to explore the possibility
of industrial lignin as a reducing agent to produce DRI. The main
contents of this work are as follows: (1) The release characteristics
of the volatile matter of four reducing agents are discussed. (2)
The differences in the agravic section of the four reducing agents
during pyrolysis are analyzed. (3) The activation energy of pyrolysis
of four reducing agents in different temperature ranges is calculated,
and the pyrolysis mechanism function is determined. (4) The surface
morphology of the products after pyrolysis is observed, and it is
found that industrial lignin has certain advantages as a reducing
agent. We know that the process of lignin reducing iron ore powder
is not lignin itself as a reducing agent, but reducing substances
such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and coke produced by lignin pyrolysis
play a reducing role. Therefore, the study of pyrolysis kinetics is
of great significance for further understanding the pyrolysis mechanism
of industrial lignin, predicting the reaction rate and reaction difficulty.Industrial lignin is a very promising renewable and environmentally
friendly reducing agent conducive to the green development of the
iron and steel industry. The practical reduction application effect
of industrial lignin on iron ore powder will be discussed in other
articles.
Results and Discussion
Higher
Heating Values (HHV) of Reducing Agents
It can be seen from Table that the volatile
matter content of AL is 60.44%, and that
of ML is 57.82%, which is much higher than that of pulverized coal
(13.38% for LA and 28.28 for SM), but the fixed carbon content is
much lower than that of pulverized coal. The content of oxygen and
sulfur in industrial lignin is higher than that in pulverized coal.
Most of the sulfur can be removed in ironmaking or steelmaking processes.
According to the famous Mendeleev formula,[19] the higher heating value (HHV) of the four reducing agents is calculated,
and the results are shown in Table .where
HHV is the higher heating value, kJ·kg–1; C,
H, and S are the mass fractions of carbon, hydrogen,
and sulfur in combustible substances, respectively, %; and O is the
total mass fraction of oxygen and nitrogen in combustible substances,
%.
Table 5
Proximate and Ultimate Analysis of
Different Reducing Agents
proximate
analysis (wt %, ad.)
ultimate
analysis (wt %, ad.)
samples
F.C.a
ash
V.M.b
moisture
C
H
O
N
S
AL
26.35
8.31
60.44
4.89
59.56
6.82
29.67
0.20
1.82
ML
18.01
12.32
57.82
11.85
32.57
4.86
42.42
0.45
9.39
LA
75.90
10.01
13.38
0.71
82.00
3.41
8.50
1.79
0.20
SM
62.41
7.46
28.28
1.85
75.90
4.14
16.50
1.38
0.63
Fixed carbon.
Volatile matter.
Table 1
Higher Heating Value of Different
Reducing Agents
samples
HHV (kJ kg–1)
AL
25 669.63
ML
13 483.38
LA
30 943.01
SM
29 014.94
It can be
seen from Table that
the HHV of pulverized coal is higher than that of industrial
lignin, which indicates that pulverized coal will release more heat
during combustion. Among the four reducing agents, LA has the highest
heat output of 30 943.01 kJ·kg–1, and
the lowest heat output of ML is 13 483.38 kJ·kg–1, which is mainly due to the high carbon content in LA and the low
carbon content in ML.
Thermogravimetric Analysis
The pyrolysis
process of pulverized coal and industrial lignin is very complicated,
including a series of chemical reactions and physical changes. The
thermogravimetric results of pulverized coal and industrial lignin
under a nitrogen atmosphere are shown in Figure . It can be found that the pyrolysis process
of pulverized coal and industrial lignin is basically similar, that
is, they all go through three stages. The pyrolysis process can be
divided into stage I, stage II, and stage III according to the initial
temperature Ti and the ending temperature Te of volatile matter release. The temperature
ranges of the three pyrolysis stages of different reducing agents
are shown in Table and Figure .
Figure 2
Pyrolysis curve
of different reducing agents: (a) LA, (b) SM, (c)
AL, and (d) ML.
Table 2
Temperature Range
of the Pyrolysis
Process with Different Reducing Agents, K
sample name
stage I
stage II
stage III
LA
303–749
749–1006
1006–1273
SM
303–681
681–838
838–1273
AL
303–543
543–715
715–1273
ML
303–526
526–695
695–1273
Figure 3
Temperature range of the pyrolysis process with
different reducing
agents.
Pyrolysis curve
of different reducing agents: (a) LA, (b) SM, (c)
AL, and (d) ML.Temperature range of the pyrolysis process with
different reducing
agents.Stage I of pyrolysis, that
is, when the pyrolysis temperature is
low, is a drying and degassing process. The weight loss of pulverized
coal in this stage is mainly due to the release of water, some gases
(CH4, CO2, and N2) in the pores,
and the thermal decomposition of some chemical bonds with weak bond
energy. The weight loss of industrial lignin is due to the volatilization
of free water and bound water, as well as the volatilization of a
small amount of carboxylic acid during glass transition.[20] In this stage, the weight loss rate of ML is
21.2%, which is much higher than that of the other three reducing
agents, mainly because of the highest moisture content in ML.Stage II of pyrolysis of pulverized coal and industrial lignin
is mainly the rapid release of volatile matter. The TG curve in Figure shows rapid weightlessness.
At this time, the reaction mechanism and control links begin to change.
The pyrolysis process of pulverized coal in this stage is mainly the
escape of gas and tar, and the formation of semi-coke. The reason
is that the side chains of aromatic fused ring compounds, the noncovalent
molecules, and some oxygen-containing functional groups are broken
and decomposed in pulverized coal, thus forming CO2, CO,
CH4, H2O, H2, phenols, aliphatic
hydrocarbons, and other substances. In industrial lignin, carbohydrate
compounds are decomposed, ether bonds and part of carbon–carbon
bonds are broken, resulting in the formation of low molecular phenols,
alkanes, alcohols, and aldehydes, as well as most of CH4, CO2, and a small amount of CO.[20−22] The order of
the weight loss rate in this stage is AL (33.78%) > ML (28.7%)
> SM
(14.24%) > LA (6.69%). There are two reasons for this phenomenon:
(1) The volatile matter content of industrial lignin is much higher
than that of pulverized coal. (2) Industrial lignin is mainly composed
of the ether bond (R–O–R) with low bond energy (about
380–420 kJ·mol–1) and is easy to break
during pyrolysis, while pulverized coal is mainly composed of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons connected by the carbon–carbon bond with
large bond energy (about 1000 kJ·mol–1), which
is not easy to break during heating.[23] We
can also find that the weight loss rate of SM is higher than that
of LA, which is related to the oxygen-containing functional groups
in pulverized coal. SM has a low degree of coalification and high
oxygen content, so the oxygen-containing functional groups with lower
bond energy will also increase, eventually leading to a higher weight
loss rate of SM.Stage III of pyrolysis is carbonization, in
which semi-coke is
gradually transformed into coke. At this stage, pulverized coal mainly
goes through the polycondensation reaction and produces more H2 and CO. There are two main sources of H2, one
is the polycondensation dehydrogenation of aromatic and hydrogenated
aromatic structures[24] and the other is
the secondary pyrolysis reaction, such as C2H6 → C2H4 + H2, C2H4 → CH4 + C, and CH4 →
2C + 2H2.[25] There are also two
sources of CO, one is due to the breakage of carbonyl and oxygen-containing
heterocyclic rings and the other is the reaction between CO2 and semi-coke.[26] Industrial lignin mainly
goes through the carbon-forming reaction and the decomposition or
condensation reaction of the aromatic ring structure and generates
CO2 and a large amount of CO.[27,28] The weight loss rate of industrial lignin in this stage is also
higher than that of pulverized coal. The order of the weight loss
rate from large to small is ML (17.1%) > AL (16.65%) > SM (9.69%)
> LA (2.93%). This also fully shows that industrial lignin is easier
to pyrolyze and will produce more gas at this stage, which is conducive
to the reduction of iron ore powder.In addition, it can be
found from Figure that there will be a small weight loss peak
at the high-temperature stage, mainly due to the following three possible
reason: (1) decomposition of minerals (mainly carbonate);[29] (2) condensation of semi-coke into coke at high
temperatures, resulting in the release of a small part of hydrogen;
and (3) reaction of alkali metal salt with the carbon in semi-coke.[21,30]It can be seen from Figure that a very interesting phenomenon appears in the
pyrolysis
temperature ranges of the four reducing agents. In stage I of pyrolysis,
the order of temperature range is LA (719 K) > SM (651 K) >
ML (513
K) > ML (496 K), while in stage III of pyrolysis, the temperature
range shows a completely opposite phenomenon: LA (540 K) < SM (708
K) < ML (831 K) < ML (851 K). This shows that industrial lignin
is better than pulverized coal in drying and degassing, while it takes
longer than pulverized coal in the coking process. In this study,
the heating temperature range is 303–1273 K, and a large coking
temperature range means that the coking starting temperature is lower,
that is, industrial lignin is easier to coke than pulverized coal.It is well known that lignin is a kind of complex organic matter
with many functional groups. The main structural units of lignin mainly
include three kinds of phenylpropane monomers with different properties
(coniferyl alcohol, coumaryl alcohol, and sinapyl alcohol types).
The industrial lignin used in this study was obtained by the alkaline
pulping process, which is closer to the characteristics of natural
lignin. Recent studies have shown that pulverized coal is mainly composed
of aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, and a small amount
of oxygen-containing functional groups. Therefore, industrial lignin
has a higher content of oxygen-containing functional groups than pulverized
coal. Moreover, due to the low bond energy of oxygen-containing functional
groups, the structure in industrial lignin is easy to break and generate
gases such as CO and CO2.The research shows that
the CO and CO2 yield increases
linearly with the increase in the O/C atomic ratio of coal.[31] In this study, the O/C atomic ratios of LA,
SM, AL, and ML are 0.10, 0.22, 0.50, and 1.30, respectively. The O/C
atomic ratio of industrial lignin is higher than that of pulverized
coal, resulting in a higher content of
CO and CO2, which is beneficial to the reduction of iron
ore powder. Therefore, the oxygen-containing functional group is also
one of the characteristics of the reducing agent, and detailed experimental
data and analyses are our future work.
Pyrolysis
Characteristics of the Reducing
Agent
The pyrolysis characteristic parameters obtained from Figure are shown in Table . It can be seen from Table that the Ti of ML is only 526.3 K, and that of AL is 542.9
K, which is far lower than those of SM (681.2 K) and LA (749.1 K).
In addition, the Te and Tmax of industrial lignin are also significantly lower
than those of pulverized coal. The (dw/dt)mean values of AL, ML, SM, and LA are 2.05, 1.79, 0.93,
and 0.27%·min–1, respectively, the (dw/dt)max values are 2.90, 2.68,
1.42, and 0.37%·min–1, and the P values are 4.52, 4.57, 0.66, and 0.01 10–7%2·K–3·min–2.
This indicates that the volatile matter of industrial lignin is easier
to release than that of pulverized coal, and the pyrolysis reaction
is also easier.
Table 3
Pyrolysis Characteristic Parameters
of Different Reducing Agents
Ti (K)
Te (K)
Tmax (K)
Tmean (%·min–1)
(dw/dt)max (%·min–1)
p (10–8%2·K–3·min–2)
LA
749.10
1006.00
822.95
0.27
0.37
0.06
SM
681.20
837.80
728.86
0.93
1.42
2.53
AL
542.90
715.30
617.74
2.05
2.90
12.57
ML
526.30
695.10
563.70
1.79
2.68
11.31
The Ti, Te, and Tmax of ML are lower than those
of AL, but the P values of the two are basically
the same, which indicates that the difficulty of the release of the
volatile matter of the two is basically the same.
Kinetic Analysis
As is known, the
difficulty of the chemical reaction can be reflected by activation
energy, that is to say, the reaction is difficult when the activation
energy is large. On the contrary, the reaction is easier when the
activation energy is small. The purpose of this work is to determine
the degree of difficulty in the pyrolysis of pulverized coal and industrial
lignin according to the activation energy.According to the
analysis and discussion on the pyrolysis process of pulverized coal
and industrial lignin in Section , it can be seen that the control mechanism of pyrolysis
is different at different temperature ranges. Because the single kinetic
model cannot describe the whole pyrolysis process well, this study
adopts the segmented method to fit the different stages of pyrolysis
to deeply understand the control mechanism of pulverized coal and
industrial lignin in the pyrolysis process. Since the pyrolysis process
of pulverized coal and industrial lignin is mainly affected by moisture
in stage I, it will not be discussed here. This study focuses on the
pyrolysis mechanism of stages II and III. The reaction mechanism functions
of the four reducing agents at stages II and III are fitted and calculated,
and the results are shown in Figure and Table . The results show that stage II accords with the third-order
chemical reaction model, and the mechanism function is G(α) = [(1 – α)−2 – 1]/2.
The reaction mechanism of stage III accords with the fourth-order
random nucleation and growth model and the mechanism function is G(α) = [−In(1 – α)]4.
Figure 4
Linear fitting of G(α) = [(1 – α)−2 – 1]/2 versus 1/T for stage
II (a) and G(α) = [−In (1 –
α)]4 versus 1/T for stage III (b).
Table 4
Kinetic Parameters Obtained by Means
of the Coats–Redfern Method
sample name
temperature (K)
fitting
equation
E (kJ·mol–1)
A (min–1)
R2
LA
749–1006
y = −8552.20x – 3.60
71.10
2.33 × 103
0.999
1007–1273
y = −16074.58x + 3.26
133.64
4.19 × 105
0.996
SM
681–838
y = −8455.38x – 1.79
70.30
1.40 × 103
0.990
839–1273
y = −11824.65x + 0.94
98.31
3.00 × 103
0.996
AL
543–715
y = −6639.86x – 2.06
55.20
8.46 × 102
0.996
716–1273
y = −6949.51x – 2.67
57.78
4.81 × 102
0.934
ML
526–695
y = −4491.24x – 4.60
37.34
4.5 × 10
0.997
696–1273
y = −5614.59x – 3.97
46.68
1.06 × 102
0.987
Linear fitting of G(α) = [(1 – α)−2 – 1]/2 versus 1/T for stage
II (a) and G(α) = [−In (1 –
α)]4 versus 1/T for stage III (b).It can be seen from Figure and Table that the linear fitting results are good. In stage II of pyrolysis,
the order of activation energy of the four reducing agents is LA (71.10
kJ·mol–1) > SM (70.30 kJ·mol–1) > AL (55.20 kJ·mol–1) > ML (37.34
kJ·mol–1). The order of activation energy in
stage III is
LA (133.64 kJ·mol–1) > SM (98.31 kJ·mol–1) > AL (57.78 kJ·mol–1)
> ML
(46.68 kJ·mol–1). It can be found that the
activation energy of industrial lignin is lower than that of pulverized
coal in stages II and III, which indicates that industrial lignin
is easier to pyrolyze. This result is also consistent with the analysis
in Section
2.2. For the same reducing agent, the activation energy of
stage III is larger than that of stage II, which indicates that pyrolysis
in stage III is more difficult. This is because the bond energy of
the material structure in the high temperature is relatively large
and is not easy to break.
Surface Morphology Analysis
The surface
morphology of the four reducing agents after pyrolysis was analyzed
by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as shown in Figure . The morphology of industrial
lignin after pyrolysis is significantly different from that of pulverized
coal. The coal coke is in the form of particles with rough surfaces
and different sizes. A few nanometer thick carbon film structure appears
in AL coke. However, the ML coke has a larger and thicker sheet structure.
AL coke has a large specific surface area, but ML coke does not seem
to have an advantage over coal coke.
Figure 5
Surface morphology of the reducing agents
after pyrolysis: (a)
LA, (b) SM, (c) AL, and (d) ML.
Surface morphology of the reducing agents
after pyrolysis: (a)
LA, (b) SM, (c) AL, and (d) ML.
Conclusions
Industrial lignin can replace
pulverized coal as a reducing agent
for the production of DRI. The pyrolysis of the four reducing agents
all go through three stages: the low-temperature drying and degassing
stage, the medium-temperature volatile matter rapid release stage,
and the high-temperature carbonization stage. The volatile matter
of industrial lignin is easier to release than that of pulverized
coal during pyrolysis. The drying and degassing temperature range
of industrial lignin is smaller than that of pulverized coal, while
the coking temperature range is larger than that of pulverized coal.
The pyrolysis activation energy of industrial lignin is lower than
that of pulverized coal. A few nanometer thick carbon film structure
appears in alkali lignin coke, which increases the specific surface
area and is very beneficial to the reduction of iron ore powder.
Methods and Materials
Materials
The
reducing agents used
in the experiment include alkali lignin (AL), magnesium lignosulfonate
(ML), Lu’an anthracite (LA), and Shenmu bituminous coal (SM).
LA and SM are provided by an iron and steel company, while AL and
ML are provided by Huawei Youbang ChemicalCo., Ltd. Before the experiment,
the samples were placed in an oven and dried at 378 K for 24 h.
Apparatus and Experimental Procedures
The
pyrolysis characteristics of pulverized coal and industrial lignin
under a nitrogen atmosphere were studied on a thermogravimetric analyzer
(STA409CD, Netzsch Group, Germany). In this work, about 10 mg of the
sample was placed in an alumina pan and heated at 10 K min–1 up to a temperature of 1273 K. The carrier gas (N2) flow
rate was maintained at 30 mL min–1 for each experiment.
A separate blank run was conducted using an empty pan under identical
conditions and these data were used for baseline correction during
the evaluation of the sample thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) profile.
To calculate the kinetic parameter for the sample pyrolysis work,
we have taken the time–temperature data while heating up the
samples from 303 to 1273 K.According to the GB/T 212-2008 method,
the proximate analysis of pulverized coal is carried out. The analysis
of O, N, and H elements was determined by an ONH836 (Laboratory Equipment
Corporation) and that of S and C elements was determined by an SC-144DR
(Laboratory Equipment Corporation) analyzer. The proximate analysis
and ultimate analysis of the reducing agents are shown in Table .Fixed carbon.Volatile matter.The particle size of the sample
is determined by a particle size
analyzer (Master sizer 3000, Malvern Instruments Ltd., U.K.). The
particle size of the samples is more than 200 mesh, accounting for
above 90%; the particle size distribution is shown in Figure .
Figure 6
Particle size distribution
of the samples: (a) LA, (b) SM, (c)
AL, and (d) ML.
Particle size distribution
of the samples: (a) LA, (b) SM, (c)
AL, and (d) ML.The surface morphology of the
sample after pyrolysis was observed
by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (JSM-6510LV, Japan).
Comprehensive Volatile Matter Release Characteristic
Index
The comprehensive volatile matter release characteristic
index P is used to characterize the difficulty of
volatile release during pyrolysis.[32−34] The larger the value P, the easier the sample to decompose. The calculation formula
is shown in eq .where P is the
comprehensive
volatile matter release characteristic index, %2·K–3·min–2. is the maximum value of the volatile
matter
release rate, %·min–1. is the average release rate of
volatile
matter, %·min–1. Ti is the initial release temperature of volatile matter, K. Tmax is the temperature corresponding to the
maximum value of the volatile matter release rate, K. ΔT1/2 is the temperature range when the volatile
matter release rate reaches half of the maximum value, that is, the
half peak temperature width when , K. The parameter definition is shown in Figure . Te is defined
as the end temperature of volatile matter
release.
Figure 7
Pyrolysis curve and schematic diagram of parameter definition.
Pyrolysis curve and schematic diagram of parameter definition.
Kinetic Models
The change in the
weight loss rate with temperature is a measurement method of reactivity,
which can well understand the reaction kinetics. The nonisothermal
thermogravimetric method given in Section has also been used by many authors for
kinetic analysis.[35−39]The pyrolysis process of pulverized coal and industrial lignin
can be expressed by eqThe pyrolysis process
of pulverized coal and industrial lignin
is a complex multiphase chemical reaction. According to the law of
mass action and the Arrhenius equation, many scholars have proposed
different kinetic treatment methods. According to the form of the
kinetic equation, it can be divided into a derivative method and an
integral method. The pattern matching method is one of the most commonly
used analysis methods in the field of kinetics of nonisothermal processes.[40] The integral method will not produce numerical
errors due to derivative, and the data is not easy to be distorted
in the process of calculation. Therefore, the Coats–Redfern[41] integral method is adopted in this paper.The basic theory of classical chemical reaction kinetics is based
on the isothermal process and the homogeneous reaction. Using the
thinking method of infinitesimal differential, assuming that the change
in temperature can be ignored at an infinitesimal interval time, then
the nonisothermal process can be regarded as an isothermal process,[42] and the chemical reaction rate equation can
be expressed by eq .where α is the conversion
rate, %. t is the pyrolysis time, min. k is the
reaction rate constant, min–1. f(α) is the chemical reaction mechanism that depends on the
elementary reaction, and its functional form depends on the reaction
type and reaction mechanism.The expression of the conversion
rate α is as followswhere w0, w, and w∞ are the initial mass of the sample,
the mass at time t, and the mass at the end of the
reaction, respectively, mg.The reaction rate constant k is expressed by the
classical Arrhenius equation[43,44]where A is the frequency
factor, min–1, E is the activation
energy, J·mol–1, R is the
gas constant, 8.314 J·mol–1·k–1, and T is the absolute temperature, K.The
expression of the heating rate β is as followsFrom eqs to 7, we
can get the following resultsThe integral equation can be obtained as followsThe Coats–Redfern integral method was used to deal
with
the exponential integral by the asymptotic series expansion, and the
separation of variable integral could be obtainedwhere G(α)
is the integral form of the kinetic mechanism
function of the solid reaction.For the zone of the general
reaction temperature and activation
energy, the expression is Therefore, eq can be simplified as followsWhen the correct reaction mechanism G(α) is
determined, the relationship between and 1/T must be in a straight
line. The activation energy can be obtained by the slope of the straight
line, and the frequency factor can be obtained by the intercept.The forms of commonly used solid reaction kinetic mechanism functions
are shown in Table .[45−50]
Table 6
Expressions of G(α)
and f(α) for the Kinetic Model Functions Usually
Employed for the Solid-State Reaction