Thermal behaviour of low-rank Indian coal fines agglomerated with an organic binder

The combustion kinetic parameters of the carbonized agglomerated coal fines (ACFs) were determined by thermogravimetric analysis under oxy-non-isothermal conditions for planning, designing, and operating the related combustion systems at an industrial scale. Friedman and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa methods were applied to determine the activation energies (E) and pre-exponential factors (A) of the thermal decomposition of ACFs. The multivariate nonlinear regression analyses were performed to find out the formal mechanisms, kinetic model, and the corresponding kinetic triplets. The results revealed the n-dim. Avrami–Erofeev (An) and nth-order (Fn) mechanism responsible for the decomposition of the carbonized ACFs. The activation energy of the combustion of carbonized ACFs is found to be in the range of 132.75–191.57 kJ mol−1.