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Combustion and Self-Desulfurization Characterization of Blended Low-Rank Coals for Improved Resource Utilization in Fluidized Bed Boilers

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Abstract

The co-combustion of low-rank coals through fluidized bed boiler (CFB) is an effective approach to enhance the level of resource utilization. To date, there has been a lack of investigation concerning the co-combustion kinetics and self-desulfurization characteristics of coal slime, coal gangue, and raw coal. In this study, we adopted multiple model-free and model-fitting methods to comparatively analyze co-combustion kinetics of blended coals on the basis of thermogravimetric data. Then, the sulfur balance and self-desulfurization of blended coals in the co-combustion were intensively investigated using a tube furnace set-up. The results reveal that in the presence of coal gangue in blended coals, the average activation energy (Ea) falls within the range of 65.7 kJ/mol to 100.4 kJ/mol, as determined by four model-free methods. Conversely, in the absence of coal gangue, only the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and Friedman (FM) methods are deemed appropriate for calculating the average Ea, yielding a value of 77.3 kJ/mol. The first order reaction model is confirmed to be reliable for analyzing the co-combustion kinetics of low-rank blended coals. Irrespective of the specific composition of the blended coal, a significant linear correlation exists between the Ea and the natural logarithm of the pre-exponential factor (lnA) within an extensive range of parameters. Moreover, the addition of coal gangue to the blended coal substantially enhances the self-desulfurization level, resulting in an increase from 25.7% to 60.7% at 1073 K. The self-desulfurization efficiency exhibits a good linear relationship with both the mass ratio of coal gangue to coal slime and the molar ratio of calcium to sulfur. In a practical implementation, the optimal addition ratio of coal gangue is a trade-off between the self-desulfurization efficiency and the ignition capacity.

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Funding

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52276110).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Power Station Energy Transfer Conversion and System, Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Lipeng Su, Cong Zhang, Yongsheng Zhang, Tao Wang & Jiawei Wang

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  1. Lipeng Su
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  2. Cong Zhang
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  3. Yongsheng Zhang
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  4. Tao Wang
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  5. Jiawei Wang
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Correspondence to Yongsheng Zhang.

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Combustion and Self-Desulfurization Characterization of Blended Low-Rank Coals for Improved Resource Utilization in Fluidized Bed Boilers

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Su, L., Zhang, C., Zhang, Y. et al. Combustion and Self-Desulfurization Characterization of Blended Low-Rank Coals for Improved Resource Utilization in Fluidized Bed Boilers. J. Therm. Sci. 33, 1242–1256 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-024-1987-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-024-1987-z

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