CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 72, 2019 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Jeng Shiun Lim, Azizul Azri Mustaffa, Nur Nabila Abdul Hamid, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš Copyright © 2019, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. ISBN 978-88-95608-69-3; ISSN 2283-9216 Kinetic Study of Horse Manure through Thermogravimetric Analysis Guo Ren Mong a , Jo-Han Ng b , William Woei Fong Chong c ,Farid Nasir Ani a , Su Shiung Lam d , Cheng Tung Chong e, * a School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. b Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton Malaysia (UoSM), 79200 Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia. c UTM Centre for Low Carbon Transport in cooperation with Imperial College London, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. d Pyrolysis Technology Research Group, Eastern Corridor Renewable Energy Group, School of Ocean Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia. e China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Lingang, Shanghai 201306, China. ctchong@sjtu.edu.cn Horse manure contains potential source of bioenergy that can be pyrolysed to obtain bio-oil and synthesis gas. In the present work, horse manure samples collected from the horse stable in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia were analysed through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to determine the Arrhenius parameters and thermodynamics properties. TGA was conducted on the horse manure at heating rates of 1, 2, 5, 10 °C/min in a nitrogen-filled reactor. The TGA data was analysed by using three different model-free, non-isothermal methods, namely Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Kissinger methods. Result shows the temperature for highest conversion of horse manure is within the range of 290.2-329.6 K. The Kissinger method shows the overall average activation energy of 148.47 kJ/mol, whereas FWO and KAS methods show the activation energy at different conversional fractions throughout the process with the range of 176.2-293.6 kJ/mol and 175.6-300.1 kJ/mol. Thermodynamic properties including the pre-exponential factor, enthalpy change, free Gibbs energy and entropy of horse manure during pyrolysis were also determined. 1. Introduction Animal manure from living organisms possesses energy that can be retrieved through thermochemical process. Typically, manure usually ends up in landfill or as fertilizers. However, as stricter regulation is being imposed to prevent land and water pollutions, alternative method for disposal of animal manure is needed (Ro et al., 2007). Pyrolysis is a process capable of producing valuable char, liquid and gaseous products (Ng et al., 2017), while providing an alternative solution for landfilling and lowering greenhouse gases emission compared to other thermochemical conversion processes. Pyrolysis emits lower COx, SOx and NOx when compared to combustion and gasification (Cao et al., 2014). To design and optimize a reactor capable of pyrolysing manure, a clear insight into the pyrolysis process is needed to provide information on the reaction mechanism (Perondi et al., 2016). Further, setting up a thermochemical operational system requires data about kinetic properties that describe the sample degradation behavior during pyrolysis. Thermogravimetric analysis is a common approach used to investigate the weight loss of sample as a function of temperature (Balasundram et al., 2017) to determine the Arrhenius parameters and describe the kinetic mechanism during pyrolysis process (Foltin et al., 2017). Model-free method enables the determination of activation energy and pre-exponential value without considering the type of kinetic model. From literature, Flynn- Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) are shown to be good methods in predicting kinetics at high conversional level (Foltin et al., 2017). The methods produced relatively accurate result compared to the DOI: 10.3303/CET1972041 Paper Received: 23 April 2018; Revised: 09 October 2018; Accepted: 24 November 2018 Please cite this article as: Mong G.R., Ng J.-H., Chong W.W.F., Ani F.N., Lam S.S., Chong C.T., 2019, Kinetic study of horse manure through thermogravimetric analysis, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 72, 241-246 DOI:10.3303/CET1972041 241