Plant and Soil Science

Processes such as pyrolysis and gasification are effective ways of converting biomass to fuel. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to study the processes occurring during the combustion of biomass and to study the influence of various factors on the efficiency of its thermal decomposition. The features of the thermal destruction of swtchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), grown on different variations of phytomeliorated mining rocks, and the effect of amendments on its thermal characteristics were studied. It was found that the thermolysis of plants grown on a phytomeliorated mixture of loess loam and red-brown clay passes in three stages in the temperature range from 30oC to 580oC. Amendments application increases the reactivity of the biomass during the thermal decomposition of hemicellulose and cellulose. The best effect is obtained from the application of sewage sludge and mineral fertilizer. The thermal destruction of switchgrass biomass, grown on dark-gray schist clay, differs somewhat from similar processes in plants on the phytomeliorated mixture. On the 0-20 cm layer, it was longer, and on the 20-40 cm layer it was shorter. In the second stage, two peaks of hemicellulose and cellulose destruction are clearly traced in the samples from the 40-60 cm layer, while in others the cellulose decomposition occurs earlier, therefore only one peak is observed in the DTG curves in this region. 

Panicum virgatum, reclaimed land, biomass, thermal decomposition