Effect of pyrolysis characteristics on ignition mechanism and NO emission of pulverized coal during oxy-fuel combustion

The effect of pyrolysis behavior on the ignition mechanism was investigated by thermogravimetric technique. The pyrolysis tests show that Datong bituminous coal (DT) pyrolyzes earlier and releases volatiles faster than does Guohua bituminous coal (GH). During oxy-fuel combustion, more volatiles accumulated around DT particles can be ignited easily with increasing oxygen concentration which results in the heterogeneous ignition transforming to homogeneous ignition, while for GH, less volatile is released during devolatilization and the coal particles are more likely ignited heterogeneously. After the transformation of ignition mechanism, the ignition temperature of DT decreases significantly, but the combustibility index S is not appreciably affected. The effect of pyrolysis characteristics on NO emissions was studied by a fixed-bed reactor. It is found that compared to GH, DT released NO more quickly and intensively which leads to more fuel-N converting to NO. With the rise in oxygen concentration, the NO yields of both coals reach the peak values at 40 % oxygen concentration and then decline mainly due to the enhanced homogeneous NO reductions at higher oxygen concentration. With the rise in furnace temperature, the NO yields of coal samples increase first and then decrease with a maximum at 900 °C which is possibly a result of the competing reactions of volatile-N oxidation and reduction in the process of NO formation.