Thermal deactivation studies of coconut shell pyrolysis

The kinetics of pyrolysis of predried coconut shell sample has been investigated in the temperature range of 523 K to 1023 K in an inert atmosphere by captive sample technique. A kinetic scheme has been proposed where two parallel reactions are given for the production of volatiles and char. The reaction rate constants are found to decrease with high temperatures above 673 K due to chemical and physical changes of the reactant during devolatilisation reaction. Several deactivation models have been proposed to give good agreement with the experimental data.