Impact of wheat straw and petroleum coke blending on combustion behavior of high ash coal

ABSTRACT

This study reports the combustion behavior of coal, petroleum coke (PEC), wheat straw (WS), and their ternary blends to assess the impact of PEC and WS blending on coal combustion characteristics. Ignition temperature (T_S), peak temperature (T_max), burnout temperature (T_B), performance indices, and combustion efficiency (η) were investigated to identify the influence of WS and PEC blending on coal combustion. Results infer that PEC has poor combustion characteristics and a higher gross calorific value of 8602 kcal/kg than coal and WS. For 10% PEC in blends, with the rise of WS from 10 to 30%, T_S declined from 373 to 256°C, T_B decreased from 510 to 509°C, signifying improvement in blend combustibility. At 400°C, η rose from 15.52 to 39.30% as WS increased in blends from 10 to 30%. For 15% PEC in the blend, activation energy reduced from 106.12 to 83.27 kJ/mol as WS increased from 10 to 25%. The synergistic effect is significant for higher biomass content in blends. Thermodynamics analysis inferred that PEC and coal combustion is turmoil than WS.

KEYWORDS:

• activation energy
• coal
• combustion
• enthalpy
• petroleum coke
• wheat straw

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pritam Kumar

Pritam Kumar obtained his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from West Bengal University of Technology Kolkata, India. He completed both M.Tech and Ph.D in Fuel Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, India. His areas of research interests are thermochemical conversion, renewable energy, coal beneficiation, computational fluid dynamic simulation. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India.

Barun Kumar Nandi

Barun Kumar Nandi is an Associate professor of the Department of Fuel Minerals and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, India. He completed both Bachelor of Chemical Engineering and Master of Chemical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Then he completed PhD in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. His current research interests include thermochemical conversion, coal and biomass processing, computational fluid dynamic simulation of combustion, membrane separation process, wastewater treatment, ANN modelling of membrane separation processes, fuel processing technology.