Abstract
A thermogravimetric analysis is used to analyze the thermal kinetics and investigate the synergistic effects between Alternanthera philoxeroides (AP) and waste tires (WTS) in a temperature range of 50-900 °C under three heating rates (15, 25, and 35 °C/min). Two model-free methods (FWO and KAS) and a model-fitting method (CR) were applied to calculate the activation energy. Results revealed that heating rates had no significant effect on the pyrolysis operation. The addition of WTS improved the thermal degradation of the samples as the samples had more than one stage during the main reaction period. A promoting synergistic effect was found in the blend 75A25WT and obtained the lowest activation energy among all the blends without a catalyst, while the blend 50A50WT exhibited an inhibiting effect. On the other hand, the addition of HZSM-5 accelerated the reaction time and obtained the lowest activation energy among all the blends without a catalyst. Furthermore, ΔW of 75A25WT+C was the lowest, indicating that the blend with a catalyst exhibited the strongest synergistic effect. This research confirmed that the addition of WTS improved the thermal parameters of the samples and clarified the capacity of HZSM-5 to reduce the activation energy.