TITLE:
Thermogravimetric Analysis of Swine Manure Solids Obtained from Farrowing, and Growing-Finishing Farms
AUTHORS:
Mahmoud Sharara, Samy Sadaka
KEYWORDS:
Manure Solids; Thermogravimetric Analysis; Pyrolysis; Isoconversional Methods
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems,
Vol.4 No.1,
March
27,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The modern trend of increasing the number of pigs at
production sites led to a noticeable surplus of manure. Separation of manure solids provides an avenue of their utility via
thermochemical conversion techniques. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to assess the physical and thermal
properties of solid separated swine manure obtained from two different farms, i.e., farrowing, and growing-finishing,
and to determine their pyrolysis kinetic parameters. Swine manure solids were
dried and milled prior to assessing their
properties. Differential and integral isoconversional methods (Friedman, and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa) were used to determine the
apparent activation energy as a function of the conversion ratio. Significant
differences were observed in the proximate, ultimate composition between both manure types. The higher heating value
(HHV) for the manure solids from farrowing, and growing-finishing farms reached
16.6 MJ/kg and 19.4 MJ/kg, respectively. The apparent activation energy computed using Friedman and FWO
methods increased with the increase in the degree of conversion. Between 10%
and 40% degrees of conversion, the average activation energies, using Friedman
method, were103 and 116 kJ/mol for the farrowing and growing-finishing manure
solids, respectively. On the other hand, the same activation energies, calculated from FWO method, were 98 and 104 kJ/mol, for solid
manure obtained from farrowing and
growing-finishing farms, respectively. The findings in this study will assist
in the effort to optimize thermochemical conversion processes to accommodate
swine waste. This could, in turn, minimize swine production impacts on the
surrounding ecologies and provide sustainable energy and biochar streams.