Reactivity study of combustion for coals and their chars in relation to volatile content

Abstract

To determine the effect of volatile matter on combustion reactivity, the pyrolysis and combustion behavior of a set of four (R, C, M and K coals) coals and their chars has been investigated in a TGA (SDT Q600). The maximum reaction temperatures and maximum reaction rates of the coals and their chars with different heating rates (5–20 °C/min) were analyzed and compared as well as their weight loss rates. The volatile matter had influence on decreasing the maximum reactivity temperature of low and medium rank coals (R, C and M coals), which have relatively high volatiles (9.5–43.0%), but for high rank coal (K coal) the maximum reactivity temperature was affected by reaction surface area rather than by its volatiles (3.9%). When the maximum reaction rates of a set of four coals were compared with those of their chars, the slopes of the maximum reaction rates for the medium rank coals (C and M coals) changed largely rather than those for the high and low rank coals (R and K coals) with increasing heating rates. This means that the fluidity of C and M coals was larger than that of their chars during combustion reaction. Consequently, for C and M coals, the activation energies are lower (24.5–28.1 kcal/mol) than their chars (29.3–35.9 kcal/mol), while the activation energies of R and K coals are higher (25.0-29.4 kcal/mol) than those of their chars (24.1–28.9 kcal/mol).