Co-combustion of coal and carbonaceous wastes: thermogravimetric analysis

The co-combustion characteristics of coal, two types of carbonaceous wastes (HDPE and scrap tire) and their blends were investigated in this study via a non-isothermal thermogravimetric method. The temperature indices and burnout index were used to evaluate the combustion performance of fuel. Strong synergistic effect emerged between carbonaceous wastes and coal, which showed the enhancement effect on devolatilization and the inhibition effect on char oxidation for the mixtures of coal and scrap tire while the opposite result for the mixtures of coal and HDPE. However, the addition of HDPE into coals can promote the release of volatile in advance. Moreover, the shape of TGA curves and the strength of the synergistic effect was different when carbonaceous wastes blending with different ranks of coal, which related to the combustion temperature zone and volatile content of coal.