Mass Loss Behavior and Volatile Composition during Pyrolysis of a Bituminous Coal

The thermogravimetry analyzer coupled with the pyrolysis gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry technology was used in this study to investigate the mass loss behavior and volatile release characteristics of a bituminous coal. The results showed that with an increasing heating rate, the characteristic parameters and TG/DTG curves shifted obviously to the higher temperature region. The pyrolysis of a bituminous coal at different heating rates can be divided into two stages according to the Coats-Redfern（C-R） plots. The activation energy obtained from the C-R method is 50.21—85.14 kJ/mol and 5.14—7.24 kJ/mol at a heating rate range of 8—300 °C/min for the first and second pyrolysis stages, respectively. Aromatic hydrocarbons were dominant in the volatile products during fast pyrolysis of the coal, followed by the olefins, whereas the phenols were the third major components. With the increase of pyrolysis temperature, the heavy components in the volatile species increased; meanwhile the phenol cracking reactions were intensified. The carbon number of olefins was mainly concentrated in 3—9, and the aromatics were mainly composed of the compounds of C6—C13.This study can provide a basic reference for fast pyrolysis of coal and other thermal chemical conversion processes.