The co-combustion performance and reaction kinetics of refuse derived fuels with South African high ash coal

This research focuses on the co-firing of low-quality coal with refuse derived fuel (RDF) as a means to reduce the volume of waste dumped in landfill sites. The co-combustion behaviour and kinetics of various RDF/coal blends at different weight ratios, along with their physicochemical characteristics were investigated. The physicochemical analysis revealed that the run-of-mine and discard coal have relatively low calorific values of 21.7 MJ/kg and 16.7 MJ/kg, respectively. The RDF samples, plastic blend (31.2 MJ/kg) and paper blend (22.4 MJ/kg), were found to have higher energy contents. The thermogravimetric analysis was performed in an atmosphere of air, over a temperature range of 25–850 °C, and the results showed that the RDF samples had lower ignition, devolatilisation, and burnout temperatures compared to the coals. The ignition temperatures for the blended fuel occurs in the lower temperature region when RDF is added to the blend, likewise the peak temperatures and burnout temperature shifted to a lower temperature zone. The activation energies (E(a)) were determined using the Coats-Redfern method. The E(a) for the run-of-mine (ROM) coal of 104.4 kJ/mol, was found to reduce to 31.4 kJ/mol for the 75% PB + 25% ROM coal blend and 35 kJ/mol for the 75% PL + 25% ROM coal blend, respectively. The discard coal which had an E(a) of 109.9 kJ/mol was reduced to 30.9 kJ/mol for the 75% PB + 25% discard blend, and 33.5 kJ/mol for the 75% PL + 25% discard coal blend. It was determined that the most favourable blend for co-combustion was 70% discard coal + 30% PL RDF due to the similarity of the combustion profile to that of 100% coal and the simultaneous reduction in apparent activation energy.