Investigation of co-pyrolysis characteristics of high-ash Indian coal and rice husk

Abstract

This study investigates the non-isothermal pyrolysis characteristics of a low-grade, high ash Indian coal, and rice husk using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). A series of thermo-gravimetric experiments are conducted to examine the effects of coal and biomass blending on their thermal degradation behavior and synergetic effects in the nitrogen atmosphere. The thermo-gravimetric (TG) curves show two distinct tips where the larger tip is obtained for biomass as compared to the coal. The thermogravimetric study does not demonstrate any significant synergetic interaction between the biomass and high ash coal in the blends, and the additive rule describes the behavior of their combined pyrolysis. The activation energy and preexponential factor for coal and biomass are calculated based on the TGA data using the Friedman method. the corresponding calculated mean activation energy values for the biomass and Indian low-rank coal were found to be 203.463 KJ/mol, and 66.97 KJ/mol respectively.