CO-pyrolysis of bituminous coal and coconut shell blends via thermogravimetric analysis

The thermal behavior of bituminous coal, coconut shell, and their blends during pyrolysis process was investigated in this study. The experiments were conducted at different weight percent of coconut shell (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt%) and temperatures ranging from 30°C to 900°C. The DTG data for fuel blends showed additive profiles that reflected behavior of the individual fuel. When coconut shell was mixed with coal under weight percent of 20–50%, the nature of peaks in DTG profiles changed from higher to lower in the third stage reaction, shifting devolatilization temperature from 400°C to 450°C. This led to a decrease in the maximum rate of mass loss from 10.6% to 7.4%/min. However, the 10 wt% blend caused a slight increase in the maximum rate of mass loss from 10.6% to 11%/min. In addition, co-pyrolysis kinetics of fuel blends indicated that the blending of coconut shell with coal at BBR higher than 30% can increase the value of activation energy and induce slow pyrolysis of blends.