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

The influence of the addition of cellulosic ethanol residue (CER) on the combustion of Indonesian subbituminous 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 degrees C/min, 10 degrees C/min, 15 degrees C/min, 20 degrees 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 41.10 kJ/mol obtained by Ozawa-Flynn-Wall model and 31.17 kJ/mol obtained by Vyazovkin model. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.