Insight into the key kinetic steps in the pyrolysis of coking and non-coking coals, characterization of the pyrolysis products

Abstract The chemical composition, structural and plastometric properties of different-ranked coals from Mongolia deposits were studied. The non-isothermal iso-conversion Ozawa–Flynn–Wall and Friedman model-free methods were used to assess kinetic parameters and to differentiate decomposition steps. Key peculiarities of the pyrolysis kinetics of brown and bituminous coals were revealed and discussed in terms of the composition and plastometric properties. Brown coal was shown to undergo three decomposition steps with ever increasing activation energy as temperature increased because of the decomposition of thermally more and more stable molecular fragments. The pyrolysis of bituminous coals occurred in four steps, the activation energy having extreme mode of temperature dependence. An important new finding was that the temperature range of the second, major pyrolysis step well corresponded to that between the softening and re-solidification temperatures according to Gieseler plastometry. The yield and composition of the pyrolysis products obtained under isothermal conditions were also characterized depending on coal rank and temperature, and the ways for qualified utilizations were offered.