Abstract Press mud, a solid waste obtained from the sugar mills, has the potential of energy generation through pyrolysis and gasification. The paper reports its proximate and ultimate analyses, deformation and fusion ash temperatures, lower and higher heating values, physico-chemical and thermal degradation in nitrogen and air atmospheres. The thermal degradation was conducted in a thermogravimetric analyzer from room temperature to 900 °C at heating rates of 20 and 40 K min −1 . The thermogravimetric, derivative thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses were carried out to determine the rate of volatiles evolution, the effect of heating rates on the thermal degradation characteristics and to determine the global mass loss kinetics of thermal degradation. The thermal degradation was found to occur in several distinct phases: each phase giving volatile evolution in an independent parallel lump. Each decomposition phase was modeled by a single irreversible reaction with respect to the solid mass. Global mass loss kinetics was also determined for the entire decomposition process, as if occurring in one single step. The integral and differential techniques were used for the determination of kinetic parameters. Using the method of Agrawal and Sivasubramanian [R.K. Agrawal, M.S. Sivasubramanian, AIChE J. 33 (1987) 7] for the total degradation zone, the orders of reaction were found in the range of 1.00–2.50 in both the atmospheres (i.e. nitrogen and air) and the activation energy in the range of 27.84–33.44 and 57.41–88.92 kJ mol −1 in nitrogen and air, respectively. The pre-exponential factor was found in the range of 32.1–95.1 and 5.10 × 10 4 to 5.46 × 10 9 min −1 in nitrogen and air atmospheres, respectively.