Nonisothermal Decomposition Kinetics of Trona

In the present work, experiments on the nonisothermal decomposition of trona in thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) devices were carried out, and kinetic analysis of the process was performed by employing four different approaches. It was determined that the process fits a first-order reaction kinetic model and that the value of the activation energy changes, to some degree, depending upon the method used in the analysis, with a maximum deviation of 8.9% from the average value. The activation energy was found to be approximately 112 kJ mol-1, which is in good agreement with the data from similar studies in the literature.