Percolative fragmentation and spontaneous agglomeration

Abstract

Captive particle imaging experiments were performed on over 200 coal and char particles in the pulverized size range from four coals of various rank at oxygen concentration from 3–19 mol-% and at gas temperatures of about 1250 K. Despite wide variations in single-particle behavior, the data set reveals two clear trends that provide new information on the nature of char combustion. First, the low-rank coal chars are observed to maintain their high reactivity through the late stages of combustion, thus avoiding the near-extinction events and long burnout tails observed for bituminous coal chars. Secondly, percolative fragmentation in the late stages of combustion is a rare event under these conditions. Some particles reach a percolation threshold late in combustion, but typically undergo spontaneous agglomeration rather than liberation of the incipient fragments. It is concluded that percolative fragmentation behavior in the pulverized size range is determined not only by solid-phase connectivity, but also by a real competition between disruptive and cohesive forces present at the time of formation of the colloidal-sized incipient fragments.