ABSTRACT
Gasification is a well-known reaction owing to its relevance to generation of sustainable energy from biomass and development of porous carbons. The present paper attempts to experimentally investigate the kinetics of palm shell char gasification using carbon dioxide [CO[2]] in a controlled environment using Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer [TGA] at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1000°C. A relevant kinetic model representing the experimental data was identified by fitting the experimental data with popular semi empirical kinetic models such as Linear Model [LM], Volume Reaction Model [VRM], Shrinking Core Model [SCM], and Random Pore Model [RPM]. The model kinetic parameters were evaluated by minimizing the sum of root mean square error [RMSE]. Among the models tested the RPM exhibited very close adherence to the experimental data evidenced from the minimum RMSE of 0.0046. The ability of the RPM model to represent the gasification kinetics was attributed to its ability to account for the pore growth during initial stages of gasification and destruction of pores due to coalescence in later stages of gasification. The rate of reaction increased with increase in temperature and activation energy was found to be 64.5 KJ/mol