Influence of carbon structure and mineral association of coals on their combustion characteristics for pulverized coal injection (PCI) application

The influence of carbon structure and mineral matter of three pulverized coals on their char characteristics including reactivity was studied under a range of combustion conditions in a drop tube furnace (DTF) and thermogravimetric (TGA) furnace for PCI application. Physical and chemical properties of coals and their combustion derivatives were characterized by automated reflectogram. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and BET N-2 adsorption. The QEMSCAN* technique was used to characterize the heterogeneous nature of minerals of discrete coal particles. The TGA char reactivity was related to the proportion of coal particles displaying strong association of calcium/sulfur phases with carbon matrix to highlight the catalytic influence of minerals on char reactivity at low temperatures. The study suggested that during DTF combustion tests at 1200 degrees C, char reaction rates might have been catalyzed by coal minerals, particularly due to illite and its association with carbon. Under the same combustion conditions, most of the coal minerals did not transform significantly to slag phases. Coal burnout was found to improve significantly in a combustion temperature range of 1200 degrees C to 1500 degrees C. The improvement of coal burnout with temperature appeared to be influenced by coal properties, particularly as a function of the chemical nature of minerals, as well as the de Fee of associations with other minerals. The study implies that coals with similar mineral compositions might not necessarily reflect similar combustion behavior due to the differences in their associations with other phases. The study highlighted the significance of the characterization of the heterogeneity of coal particles including mineral associations for a comprehensive and reliable assessment of the combustion performance of PCI in an operating blast furnace.