**Pyrolysis Kinetics of the Arid Land Biomass Halophyte Salicornia Bigelovii and Phoenix Dactylifera Using Thermogravimetric Analysis**

### **Prosper Dzidzienyo 1, Juan-Rodrigo Bastidas-Oyanedel 1,2,\* and Jens Ejbye Schmidt 1,2**


Received: 6 May 2018; Accepted: 16 July 2018; Published: 30 August 2018

**Abstract:** Biomass availability in arid regions is challenging due to limited arable land and lack of fresh water. In this study, we focus on pyrolysis of two biomasses that are typically abundant agricultural biomasses in arid regions, focusing on understanding the reaction rates and Arrhenius kinetic parameters that describe the pyrolysis reactions of halophyte *Salicornia bigelovii*, date palm (*Phoenix dactylifera*) and co-pyrolysis biomass using thermo-gravimetric analysis under non-isothermal conditions. The mass loss data obtained from thermogravimetric analysis of *S. bigelovii* and date palm revealed the reaction rate peaked between 592 K and 612 K for *P. dactylifera* leaves and 588 K and 609 K for *S. bigelovii* at heating rates, 5 K/min, 10 K/min and 15 K/min during the active pyrolysis phase. The activation energy for *S. bigelovii* and *P. dactylifera* leaves during this active pyrolysis phase were estimated using the Kissinger method as 147.6 KJ/mol and 164.7 KJ/mol respectively with pre-exponential factors of 3.13 × 109/min and 9.55 × 1010/min for the respective biomasses. Other isoconversional models such as the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa were used to determine these kinetic parameters during other phases of the pyrolysis reaction and gave similar results.

**Keywords:** halophytes; *Phoenix dactylifera*; *Salicornia bigelovii*; thermogravimetric analysis
