Kinetic analysis on catalytic co-gasification of rubber seed shell and high density polyethylene mixtures

In this paper, the catalytic co-gasification of rubber seed shell and high density polyethylene mixtures (0.2:0.8 weight ratio of HDPE:RSS) are investigated using a non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) system in a range of heating rates of 10, 20, 30 and 50 K/min within the temperature range of 323-1173 K. The argon gas is supplied at a flowrate of 100 ml/min and the steam is generated from superheater at 383 K. The steam is injected at flowrate of 300 μL/hour into the TGA system. A commercial nickel powder is used as the catalyst for the gasification process. The thermal decomposition behavior and synergistic effect of the HDPE/RSS mixture are investigated. The activation energy, EA and pre-exponential factor, A are determined based on one step integral method. © 2014 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.