Experimental Study on Pyrolysis of coal by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) under Different Temperature Conditions

Krishna Kant Dwivedi; P.K. Chatterjee; M.K. Karmakar; A.K. Pramanick

Authors

Krishna Kant Dwivedi Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West-Bengal- 713209, India
P.K. Chatterjee CSIR- Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur, West-Bengal,713209, India
M.K. Karmakar CSIR- Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur, West-Bengal,713209, India.
A.K. Pramanick Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West-Bengal- 713209, India

Keywords:

Pyrolysis, coal, thermo gravimetric, heating rate, Nitrogen environment

Abstract

In this study the pyrolysis characteristics of four different particle size (25-36, 36-52, 52-72, 100-150 µm) coal samples were performed by using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The experiments were conducted in nitrogen atmosphere for four different heating rates (50, 100, 160, 200 K/min) for the temperature range from 30 oC to 950 oC with purge flow rate of 40 ml/min. The peak temperature, mass loss, maximum mass loss rate for all different particle size coal samples were evaluated. All thermogravimetric (TG) and differential thermogravimetric (DTG) curves shows that the overall pyrolysis can be divided into different stages according to temperature profiles and each stage has its unique characteristics. The characteristic parameters of different particle size coals increased significantly with increasing the heating rate. Coal pyrolysis in this experiment can be divided in to three stage: moisture
release, devolatilization and char gasification in higher temperature zone. Corresponding calculated mean value of activation energy for coal is found 241.132 KJ/mol. The results might have important implication for understanding the mechanism of pyrolysis of coal.