Co-combustion of high and low ash lignites with raw and torrefied biomass under air and oxy-fuel combustion atmospheres

Abstract

ABSTRACT Co-combustion characteristics of high and low ash lignites blended with raw and torrefied pine woodchips were studied by Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) under air and oxy-fuel conditions. The lignites were blended with biomass samples at the mass fraction of 50/50 wt.%. Three heating rates of 10, 20, and 40°C/min were chosen, and the characteristic temperatures, including initial, ignition, and burnout temperatures, were obtained. In order to estimate the activation energies of the co-combustion of the blends, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, and Friedman kinetic methods were employed. Additionally, to assess the summative behavior of the fuel blends, the relative error as a degree of synergism was calculated based on the difference between theoretical and experimental DTG profiles. It was seen that co-combustion of torrefied biomass with the low ash Orhaneli lignite in air resulted in the average relative error of 21.41%, indicating the maximum synergism for the blend. This value was 9.59% under oxy-fuel combustion atmosphere. Blending torrefied biomass with the high ash Soma lignite resulted in average relative errors of 1.34% and 1.45% under air and oxy-fuel combustion atmospheres showing an insignificant synergetic effect. An improvement in combustion performance was noticed under oxy-fuel combustion conditions. The average activation energy values for the blend of torrefied biomass and Orhaneli lignite were 54.47 and 112.48 kJ/mol under air and oxy-fuel combustion atmospheres, which were lower than that of the parent fuels indicating higher reactivity of the blends. This trend was not seen for Soma lignite. The associated uncertainty values for the FWO method were in the range of 3.57% to 12.45% making it a proper tool for obtaining the kinetic parameters.