Experimental study on interaction and kinetic characteristics during combustion of blended coals

The combustion behaviors and kinetic parameters of three parent coals (A1, A2, and A3) and their blends (A1/A2 and A2/A3) have been evaluated under oxidizing atmosphere (O₂ and N₂ mixtures), using a nonisothermal thermo-gravimetric analyzer. The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between the blended components during the process of co-combustion, and the effects of blending ratio and oxygen concentration (10, 15, and 21%) on combustion performance of blended coals. When high reactivity and low reactivity coals are co-combusted, double peaks are observed in the DTG curves, and significant interaction occurs in the temperature range between the two peaks (T_p1 and T_p2). The activation energies obtained by Coats-Redfern method indicate that the activation energies of blended coals are lower than that of parent coals. The combustibility index S is used to evaluate the combustion performance of blended coals, and the results show the non-additive effects of the combustion characteristics of blended coals. The increased oxygen concentration results in a significant improvement of combustion performance of blended coals. In addition, as the blending ratio of high reactivity coal is increased, the oxygen can greatly enhance the combustion stability of blended coals.