Abstract
The pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of sludge pellet (SP), camphor pellet (CP) and sludge-camphor pellet (SCP, 50% sludge ratio) were studied via thermogravimetric analysis. The samples were heated from ambient temperature to 1073 K at various heating rate (5, 10, 20, 40 K/min) in nitrogen and air atmosphere. Heating rate had a substantial effect on mass loss and mass loss rate in both pyrolyzing and oxidizing conditions. The thermal behavior of SCP was the integration of SP and CP. Onset and offset temperatures of SCP lay between that of CP and SP in various heating rate. The kinetic parameters of the process were evaluated using two iso-conversional models (Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Starink). Kinetic analysis results showed that activation energy was highly depended on conversion which indicated the existence of a complex multi-step mechanism. E-alpha value for the sludge-camphor pellet (SCP) was lower than the single pellet (SP and CP). Some synergistic effects happened between sludge and camphor during pyrolysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.