Investigating the bioenergy potential of invasive Reed Canary (Phalaris arundinacea) through thermal and kinetic analyses

The thermal conversion of biomass plays an important role in the development of energy reaping technologies and fire engineering. The study investigates the bioenergy potential of Reed Canary (Phalaris arundinacea) through investigating the combustion kinetics and thermal behavior. Reed Canary samples were collected from various rural areas of Ontario, Canada. Four heating rates (10, 20, 30, and 40 °C min−1) were utilized to perform the thermal degradation analysis using a thermogravimetric analyzer. Three different stages were identified ranging from 25 °C to 800 °C in which major degradation stage had two regions from 210 °C to 530 °C where most of the biomass changed into products. Furthermore, iso-conversional models including Kissenger-Akahira-Sunose (KSA), Starink and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) were used to evaluate the reaction kinetics such as the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor. The reported kinetics parameters demonstrate the promising potential of Reed Canary for bioenergy production. Moreover, the low cost and the abundance of Reed Canary facilitate the possibility of introducing the biomass as a cost efficient and environmentally friendly natural resource for renewable bioenergy production.