Catalytic and non-catalytic synergistic effects and their individual contributions to improved combustion performance of coal/biomass blends

Jumoke Oladejo, Stephen Adegbite, Xiang Gao, Hao Liu and Tao Wu

Applied Energy, 2018, vol. 211, issue C, 334-345

Abstract: This study focuses on the synergistic properties of three types of coal when co-fired with oat straw at different blending ratios. The results demonstrated non-additive interaction between oat straw and coal samples. The catalytic effect of oat straw ash and the non-catalytic effect of its organic constituents on these coal samples were isolated and analysed to measure their contribution to the confirmed synergistic effects during co-firing. The results showed a level of synergy suppression between catalytic and non-catalytic effects due to the overlapping function of the catalytic AAEMs and the radical propagation promoted by organic content of biomass. A novel index, i.e., synergy combination efficiency, was therefore proposed and used to quantify the level of synergistic promotion or synergistic inhibition occurring during the co-firing of these fuel blends. It was found that at a blending ratio of 30 wt% oat straw, the Guizhou coal achieved a synergy factor (S.F) of 1.50, with non-catalytic and catalytic synergy contributing 69.1% and 30.9% respectively. This coal blend showed the highest synergistic promotion with a combined efficiency of 194%, which demonstrated the potential of the use of co-firing synergy to improve combustion performance of poor quality coals.

Keywords: Co-firing; Catalytic synergy; Non-catalytic synergy; Synergy index; Synergy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:211:y:2018:i:c:p:334-345

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.11.052

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