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Co-combustion and emission characteristics of coal gangue and low-quality coal

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Abstract

The reuse of coal gangue for energy recovery is developing rapidly in China, due to its advantage in achieving both economic and environmental benefits. Low-quality coal is often added to elevate the calorific value of the fuel. In this paper, the combustion characteristics as well as pollutant emissions (SO2 and NO) of coal gangue, low-quality coal and their blends at different proportions were investigated by using both thermal analysis and fixed-bed reactor. Results showed that compared with pure coal gangue, co-combustion with low-quality coal lowered ignition and burnout temperature, but only slightly decreased the activation energy. In regard to pollution emissions, the coal addition contributed to the tailing peak of SO2 emission during co-combustion, which may influence the desulfurization process. The co-combustion elevated the NO yield due to high nitrogen content in the coal used. An increase in char content with increasing coal ratio in turn promoted a reduction in NO.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Common Development Fund of Beijing and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51172001, 51172003 and 51272005). Supports by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, 2012 AA06A114) and Key Projects in the National Science and Technology Pillar Program (2013 BAC14B07 and 2011 BAB03B02) are also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Utilization and Management and Department of Energy and Resource Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, People’s Republic of China

    Yingyi Zhang, Lili Liu, Xidong Wang & Zuotai Zhang

  2. URS Corp., PO BOX 1959, Albany, OR, 97321, USA

    Jinichiro Nakano

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  1. Yingyi Zhang
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  3. Lili Liu
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  5. Zuotai Zhang
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Correspondence to Zuotai Zhang.

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Zhang, Y., Nakano, J., Liu, L. et al. Co-combustion and emission characteristics of coal gangue and low-quality coal. J Therm Anal Calorim 120, 1883–1892 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-4477-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-4477-4

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