Fuel properties of bituminous coal and pyrolytic oil mixture

Investigation on the thermal decomposition kinetics of coal-biooil slurry (CBS) fuel prepared at different ratios (100:0,70:30,60:40,0:100) was conducted using a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The materials consisted of Clermont bituminous coal (Australia) and bio-oil (also known as pyrolytic oil) from the source of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) that was thermally converted by means of pyrolysis. Thermal decomposition of CBS fuel was performed in an inert atmosphere (50mL/min nitrogen) under non-isothermal conditions from room temperature to 1000°C at heating rate of 10°C/min. The apparent activation energy (Ea.) and pre-exponential factor (A) were calculated from the experimental results by using an Arrhenius-type kinetic model which first-order decomposition reaction was assumed. All kinetic parameters were tabulated based on the TG data obtained from the experiment. It was found that, the CBS fuel has higher reactivity than Clermont coal fuel during pyrolysis process, as the addition of pyrolytic oil will reduce the Ea values of the fuel. The thermal profiles of the mixtures showed potential trends that followed the characteristics of an ideal slurry fuel where high degradation rate is desirable. Among the mixture, the optimum fuel was found at the ratio of 60:40 of pyrolytic oil/coal mixtures with highest degradation rate. These findings may contribute to the development of a slurry fuel to be used in the vast existing conventional power plants.