THERMAL-CHARACTERISTICS OF BAGASSE

Bagasse is a solid waste that remains after crushing sugarcane. Since bagasse is used as a fuel in sugar mills, characterization of its ther mal degradation is rather important in order to use it efficiently. Th ermal analysis of bagasse was carried out using differential thermal a nalysis (DTA) and thermogravimetry (TG) under oxidizing and inert atmo spheres. Kinetic studies were based on weight loss obtained from TG an alysis. Thermal degradation of bagasse takes place in two stages: vola tilization and carbonization. The reaction rate, activation energy, en tropy change, enthalpy change, and Gibbs free energy for the two therm al stages were calculated. The results indicated that activation energ y for the volatilization stage is higher than that of decarbonization stage, and that both the rate constant and activation energy for combu stion are higher than those of pyrolysis. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.