Thermal degradation of ligno-cellulosic fuels: DSC and TGA studies

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how DSC and TGA thermal analysis techniques can effectively characterize the oxidative degradation, heat release, and mass loss of ligno-cellulosic fuels, aiding wildland fire modeling and hazard assessment.

Contribution

It introduces a combined DSC and TGA approach to analyze and classify ligno-cellulosic fuels based on their thermal degradation behavior and heat release characteristics.

Findings

Identification of two main exothermic peaks at 638 K and 778 K.

Successful separation and analysis of overlapping exothermic reactions.

Classification of fuels according to heat released and reaction rate constants.

Abstract

The scope of this work was to show the utility of thermal analysis and calorimetric experiments to study the thermal oxidative degradation of Mediterranean scrubs. We investigated the thermal degradation of four species; DSC and TGA were used under air sweeping to record oxidative reactions in dynamic conditions. Heat released and mass loss are important data to be measured for wildland fires modelling purpose and fire hazard studies on ligno-cellulosic fuels. Around 638 and 778 K, two dominating and overlapped exothermic peaks were recorded in DSC and individualized using a experimental and numerical separation. This stage allowed obtaining the enthalpy variation of each exothermic phenomenon. As an application, we propose to classify the fuels according to the heat released and the rate constant of each reaction. TGA experiments showed under air two successive mass loss around 638 and 778 K. Both techniques are useful in order to measure ignitability, combustibility and sustainability of forest fuels.