Abstract: The pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of rice husk(RH)were studied by using TGA-FTIR instrument and model-free integral method under different heating rates(5、10、20、30 ℃/min).The TG and DTG curves demonstrated that the pyrolysis process of RH consisted of the drying stage, degradation stage and carbonization stage.According to the FT-IR analysis, the prominent volatile components generated by the pyrolysis of RH were aldehydes, ketones, organic acids, CO₂, and alkanes, phenols, etc.The activation energies dependent on the conversion rate were estimated by two model-free integral methods, i.e., Flynn-Wall-Ozawa(FWO)and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose(KAS)method at different heating rate.The fluctuation of activation energies could be interpreted by the multiple, parallel, and simultaneous reaction occurred in the pyrolysis process.For the first area of 0.1≤α<0.35(α was the conversion rate), this could be mainly attributed to the hemicellulose degradation.The degradation firstly started on the branch chain of the hemicellulose, then random scission on the lineal chain occourred.For the second area of 0.35≤α≤0.7, cellulose initially pyrolyzed to active cellulose, then the degradation of active cellulose occurred.For the third area of 0.7<α≤ 0.8, the highest activation energy was observed due to the degradation of lignin.

Key words: rice husk, pyrolysis, TGA-FTIR, kinetics, model free