Torrefaction thermogravimetric analysis and kinetics of sorghum distilled residue for sustainable fuel production

Abstract

This study investigated the kinetics of isothermal torrefaction of sorghum distilled residue (SDR), the main byproduct of the sorghum liquor-making process. The samples chosen were torrefied isothermally at five different temperatures under a nitrogen atmosphere in a thermogravimetric analyzer. Afterward, two different kinetic methods, the traditional model-free approach, and a two-step parallel reaction (TPR) kinetic model, were used to obtain the torrefaction kinetics of SDR. With the acquired 92-97% fit quality, which is the degree of similarity between calculated and real torrefaction curves, the traditional method approached using the Arrhenius equation showed a poor ability on kinetics prediction, whereas the TPR kinetic model optimized by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm showed that all the fit qualities are as high as 99%. The results suggest that PSO can simulate the actual torrefaction kinetics more accurately than the traditional kinetics approach. Moreover, the PSO method can be further employed for simulating the weight changes of reaction intermediates throughout the process. This computational method could be used as a powerful tool for industrial design and optimization in the biochar manufacturing process.