LAUSR

The so-called “model-free” or isoconversional way of kinetic modeling was examined. In this field, the available evaluation methods do not aim at an optimal fit for the experimental data. In the present work, the functions of the corresponding kinetic equation were approximated by simple versatile formulas, the number of the unknown parameters was kept on reasonably low levels, and the evaluation aimed at the best fit for the experiments by the least-squares method. Considerations and methods were tested on 85 thermogravimetric (TGA) experiments, which had been published earlier with different types of kinetic modeling. The experiments belonged to 16 biomass samples including woody biomass, agricultural residues, and industrial wastes. The temperature programs comprised constant heating rates, stepwise heating, constant reaction rate heating, isothermal temperature programs, and a modulated temperature program. The evaluations were based on four to nine experiments for each sample. The best fit was search...