Combustion Behaviour of the Mixture of Coal and Bio-Oil

Combustion behaviour study of coal-biooil slurry (CBS) fuel prepared at different ratios was conducted using Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The materials comprised of Clermont bituminous coal (Australia) and bio-oil, derived from Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) by means of fast pyrolysis. The samples were heated from room temperature to 110°C and held for 10 minutes before the temperature was ramped to 1100°C and held for another 10 minutes at constant heating rate of 10°C/min under air atmosphere at constant flow rate of 50 mL/min. The proportions of CBS fuel at 50:50 blends were observed to have significant influence on the combustibility of the slurry blends. The addition of bio-oil will shifted the ignition temperature towards early devolatilization. Meanwhile, the DTG profiles of the blends, showed decomposition of VM and char indicating bio-oil to be more reactive than coal with highest degradation rate appears at the blend ratio of 50:50 biooil/coal. These findings could be useful to introduce a new application of bio-oil in energy mix generation into coal mixture to cater for coal consumption reduction strategy for future application in vast existing conventional power plants.