Bioenergy derived from an organically fertilized poplar plot: overall TGA and index estimation study for combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis processes

Energy derived from biomass is, nowadays, one of the most attractive options to mitigate fossil fuel use. In this study, an organically fertilized poplar plot was employed. The goals of this work were, in the first place, to analyze the thermal behavior of the samples considering three thermal processes: combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis to, finally, try to determine the influence of the poplar clone and the subscriber type about this parameter. For these purposes, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) together with kinetic parameters and thermal indexes was used. In the same way, fuel properties were determined. Hence, having average higher heating value around 20 MJ/kg and other accurate properties, poplar samples were considered as a fuel with optimal properties. TGA profiles were different for the thermal processes compared. Four different emission stages appeared for both combustion and gasification (moisture, hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin). However, pyrolysis profiles showed a different pattern. Thermal index results were higher for the combustion than for the rest of the processes.