Kinetic study of wood pyrolysis in presence of metal halides

The purpose of this work was to study the kinetics of wood pyrolysis in the presence of inorganic salts, representatives of classes of alkali and alkaline earth metal halides (NaCl, KCl, KBr, CaCl₂, BaCl₂·2H₂O) and Lewis acids (AlCl₃·6H₂O, FeCl₃·6H₂O, CuCl₂, CuBr₂, ZnCl₂·1.5H₂O, NiCl₂·6H₂O, SnCl₂·2H₂O) using TG-DSC. The activity of these catalysts was estimated by the temperature of the beginning of pyrolysis, charcoal yield and kinetic parameters, such as energy of activation and reaction order. Using the Lewis acids as catalysts for pyrolysis leads to a decrease in the temperature of the process beginning and the activation energy. In the presence of other catalysts activation energy does not significantly change. The increase of a seeming reaction order in the presence of Lewis acids possibly is a consequence of complication of the thermodestruction mechanism, with the appearance of new parallel competing stages.