Recently, the research group of Professor Zhang Shuangbao from the College of Materials Science and Technology published the paper entitled “Insight into the pyrolysis of bamboo flour, polylactic acid and their composite: pyrolysis behavior, kinetic triplets, and thermodynamic parameters based on Fraser-Suzuki deconvolution procedure” in Bioresource Technology(IF=11.40).

As a bio-degradable polymers, Polylactic acid (PLA) shows the most potential as an alternative to many non-renewable plastics because of its high tensile strength and flexural strength; however, the degradation of PLA composites is challenging because composting conditions needed and takes 2 to 3 months under composting to degrade, and the accumulating waste of PLA will also cause “white pollution” like traditional non-biodegradable plastic products. Previous research has pointed out that biodegradable plastics have a higher global warming potential if industrial composting or disposal transportation are considered to be the end of life in life circle analysis (LCA). The recycling and treatment of waste PLA and biomass/PLA composite should be carefully considered.

Kinetic triplets and thermodynamics are important in the design of pyrolysis processing. In this study, the non-isothermal kinetics and thermodynamics of pseudo components of bamboo flour (BF), Polylactic acid (PLA), and the resulting BF/PLA composite were investigated using Fraser-Suzuki deconvolution. Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FTIR) was used to characterize the gaseous products. Results showed the Fraser-Suzuki deconvolution curves fitted well to the experimental data. For pseudo hemicellulose and pseudo components in PLA, common kinetic models were applied. The pyrolysis of pseudo cellulose met the random scission model and pseudo lignin need to be described with empirical model. The Kinetic models were verified and shown to be in good agreement with the experimental results FTIR results indicated that more radical reactions occur in PLA during co-pyrolysis with BF.Thermodynamic results indicated the pyrolysis of pseudo components were non-spontaneous reactions except lignin. These results will contribute to reactor design and scale-up in future.

The first author of the paper is Cao Yang, a doctoral student in the College of Materials Science and Technology, and Professor Zhang Shuangbao is the only corresponding author, and Beijing Forestry University is the first completed unit.This study is funded by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (6202024) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171707). The authors also thank Lee Miller Smith from University of North Texas (UNT) for linguistic assistance of this manuscript.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129932