Thermogravimetric analysis of the behavior of sub-bituminous coal and cellulosic ethanol residue during co-combustion

Abstract

The influence of the addition of cellulosic ethanol residue (CER) on the combustion of Indonesian sub-bituminous coal was analyzed by non isothermal thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The effect of blends ratio (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%), interaction mechanism, and heating rate (5°C/min, 10°C/min, 15°C/min, 20°C/min) on the combustion process was studied. The results show that the increase of the blending ratio allows to achieve the increase of the combustibility index from 7.49E−08 to 5.26E−07 at the blending ratio of 20%. Two types of non-isothermal kinetic analysis methods (Ozawa–Flynn–Wall and Vyazovkin) were also applied. Results indicate that the activation energy of the blends decreases with increasing the conversion rate. In particular, the blending ratio of 20% confirms to have the better combustion performance, with the average value of the activation energy equal to 41.10kJ/mol obtained by Ozawa–Flynn–Wall model and 31.17kJ/mol obtained by Vyazovkin model.