Combustion Science and Technology

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Thermogravimetric analysis of char combustion

Rong He , Jun'Ichi Sato , Qun Chen & Changhe Chen
To cite this article: Rong He , Jun'Ichi Sato , Qun Chen & Changhe Chen (2002)
Thermogravimetric analysis of char combustion, Combustion Science and Technology, 174:4,
1-18
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713713015

Published online: 17 Sep 2010.

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Date: 14 December 2016, At: 09:40

Combust. Sci. and Tech., 174:1 18, 2002

Copyright # 2002 Taylor & Francis
0010-2202/02 $12.00 .00
DOI: 10.1080/00102200290021128

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR

COMBUSTION

RONG HE*
Department of Thermal Engineering,Tsinghua University,
Beijing, China
JUN'ICHI SATO
Technical Development,
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.,Tokyo, Japan
QUN CHEN AND CHANGHE CHEN
Department of Thermal Engineering,Tsinghua University,
Beijing, China
Nine different char samples were tested in thermogravimetric analyzers with
continuously rising temperatures and a global one-step kinetic reaction model
was used to describe the char combustion. A mathematical method has been
presented to deduce the activation energy and pre-exponential factor. The
results show that this method has good convergence and is relatively easy for
applications. The deduced apparent activation energies and pre-exponential
factors will be used for analyzing diffusion effects within char pores in He,
Sato, and Chen (2002).
Keywords: char, combustion, pores

Received 9 July 2001; accepted 6 November 2001.

The authors wish to acknowledge the nancial support provided by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Japan. The support provided by the China Special Funds
for Major State Basic Research Projects is also gratefully acknowledged.
*Address correspondence to herong@te.tsinghua.edu.cn (NEDO Industrial Researcher)
1

R. HE ET AL.

INTRODUCTION
Char combustion has been studied for a long time (Essenhigh 1981;
Smith 1982; Smoot and Smith 1985; Hurt, Sun, and Lunden 1998; Aarna
and Suuberg 1998; Zimbardi 2000). The combustion rate can be deduced
from experiments of char combustion. Many instruments are used in
studies of coal and char combustion of which the thermogravimetric
analyzer (TGA) is widely used in studies of pyrolysis and char combustion for its simplicity. To study the kinetics of chemical reactions, most
TGA experiments are carried out under isothermal conditions. Another
technique is to do TGA experiments under non-isothermal conditions,
i.e. at continuously rising temperatures. There are several advantages for
this technique in a study of kinetics of a chemical reaction: controlling the
reaction under denite conditions; studying the reaction in one run of the
experiment; and better correlating experiments in a laboratory with real
applications that are frequently occurred with rising temperatures
(Juntgen and Heek 1968).
The TGA experimental technique with rising temperatures has been
studied for many years and made big progress (Juntgen and Heek 1968;
Misra and Essenhigh 1988; Gibbins and Williamson 1998; Russell et al.,
2000; Russell et al., 1998). However, there is a very difcult problem with
this technique: varied temperature together with time variables will make
mathematical equations much more complex in deducting the values of
the activation energy and pre-exponent factor. Therefore, this technique
is not widely used so far.
In this paper, nine different char samples were tested in two TGAs
with a continuously rising temperature condition. Two temperature rising
rates are used: 40 K=min and 30 K=min. Through theoretical analysis, a
mathematical method has been presented. The apparent activation
energy and pre-exponential factor of char combustion under continuously rising temperatures can be exactly deduced by this method. It is
well known that char pores play a great role in char combustion. The
deduced apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor are further analyzed with the fractal pore effects in He, Sato, and Chen (2002).

EXPERIMENTS
In experiments, nine different char samples were tested. To obtain char
samples, their parent coal particles, about 75 mm particle average

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

Table 1. Parent coal samples

Proximate analysis
(air dry basis)

Samples
Shanxi (China)
Yongcheng (China)
Datong (China)
Hebi (China)
Newlands (Australia)
Chaohua (China)
Luoyang (China)
Adaro (Indonesia)
Hongay (Vietnam)

Ultimate analysis
(dry basis)

Volatile Fixed
Heating Inherent
values moisture Ash matter carbon
(%) C (%) N (%) O (%) S (%)
(%)
(%) (%)
(cal=g)
7020
6840
6650
6980
6865
6980
6890
5950
5950

2.70
1.65
7.00
1.40
3.30
1.72
1.70
14.2
2.70

14.5
18.4
9.70
16.8
15.9
14.3
16.2
1.00
25.7

10.2
8.8
28.1
14.2
26.3
13.0
11.5
43.8
6.10

72.6
71.2
55.2
67.6
57.8
71.0
70.6
41.0
65.5

77.9
74.7
72.3
74.7
70.7
77.1
75.1
72.3
67.2

0.8
0.8
0.9
1.3
1.3
1.2
1.3
0.8
1.1

2.8
2.8
11.6
3.2
7.6
3.2
3.5
20.4
2.3

0.4
0.4
0.8
0.3
0.3
0.4
0.4
0.1
0.4

diameter and shown in Table 1, were devolatilized in a drop tube furnace

lled with nitrogen. The temperature of the nitrogen ow was 1200 C.
The drop tube diameter is 50 mm and the ow rate is 8.73 l=min. The fuel
feeding rate is about 1 g=h. The length of the drop-tube is 1 m of which
the length of the devolatilization section is 0.8 m and the residual time of
coal particles in this section is about 1 second.
The char samples were burned in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA)
operated at atmospheric pressure. Two different sets of TGA were used,
denoted as TGA A (NETZSCH STA 409C=3=F) and TGA B (DUPONT
2100 Thermal Analysis). Char particles were dispersed on the crucibles
whose shapes are illustrated in Figure 1.
In the tests with TGA A, all nine char samples were tested. The sample
weights are about 9 mg. The air ow with 100 ml=min rate continuously
supplies the char samples and removes reaction products. The crucible
diameter is 5 mm and the depth is 4 mm. The TGA temperature rising
rates were about 40 ( K=min).
In the tests with TGA B, the crucible diameter is 8 mm and the depth
is 1 mm. The air ow rate is 135 ml=min and the sample weights are only
about 2 mg. The heating rates are also different from the tests with TGA
A and the TGA temperature rising rates were about 30 ( K=min), as
Table 2 shows. Six samples are tested and each sample is measured three
times.

R. HE ET AL.

Figure 1. Illustration of char particles in TGA (non-scaled). There are two sets of TGA, denoted by TGA A and TGA B. The crucible shapes are cylinders in side view. TGA A: the
crucible with 5 mm diameter and 4 mm depth. TGA B: the crucible with 8 mm diameter and
1 mm depth.

For such dispersed char samples if heating rates are low, the oxygen
concentrations at the exterior surfaces of the char samples can be considered as constants. Oxygen diffuses into inter-particle voids rst, and
diffuses into char pores later. However, oxygen concentrations at char
pores are different from site to site. Usually, the deduced activation energy
and pre-exponential factor from TGA test are apparent parameters. The
effects of oxygen diffusion into inter-particle voids and pores on these
apparent parameters are discussed in He, Sato, and Chen (2002).
The temperature range was from room temperature to about 1100 K.
Around 1100 K char samples were burned out. Char particle temperatures were measured by a thermocouple in the TGA. The thermocouple is
located at the bottom of the crucible. In these experiments, the relations
of heating time and temperature were linear and could be written as:
T T0 h0 t;

where t is heating time (seconds); T is char particle temperature (K); T0

is a room temperature and h0 is a constant. For the purpose of later
convenience, re-write Equation 1 as:
t t0 hT;

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

where t0 and h are constants. In the TGA tests, the real data of heating
time and its corresponding temperature were recorded and stored in a
computer. One example of a real data series (time vs. temperature) is
illustrated on Figure 2. The relations of t vs. T can be obtained by linear
curve tting for these data and are shown in Table 2.
Sample weights at some temperature points were measured. Let w
be the char weight (kg) in the TGA tests and w0 be the initial char weight.
Figure 3 shows an example of w=w0 (%) vs. T (K).

Table 2. Heating curve and initial ash contents

TGA types

Char
samples

TGA A

Shanxi
Yongcheng
Datong
Hebi
Newlands
Chaohua
Luoyang
Adaro
Hongay

TGA B

Shanxi

Datong

Hebi

Chaohua

Luoyang

Adaro

Test
number

Relations of
t (Sec) and T (K)

Initial ash
contents (%)

Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t

457  3 1:450  0:003T

462  3 1:457  0:003T
436  4 1:420  0:005T
464  2 1:453  0:003T
431  4 1:419  0:005T
447  3 1:436  0:004T
478  2 1:470  0:002T
431  4 1:413  0:006T
424  4 1:409  0:004T

16.0
22.4
18.2
25.2
30.9
20.1
25.5
11.1
24.1

Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test

1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3

t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t

560:5  0:6 1:9147  0:0008T

496:6  0:4 1:9133  0:0006T
588:5  0:6 1:9342  0:0008T
537:3  0:3 2:0216  0:0005T
534:4  0:3 2:0341  0:0005T
599:3  0:4 2:0181  0:0005T
497:9  0:4 1:9147  0:0006T
589:4  0:7 1:9382  0:0008T
506:0  0:5 1:9157  0:0007T
577:9  0:3 2:0262  0:0004T
564:4  0:3 2:0227  0:0005T
589:8  0:4 2:0156  0:0005T
538:7  0:2 2:0187  0:0003T
528:9  0:2 1:8443  0:0003T
561:8  0:3 2:0237  0:0004T
507:8  0:5 1:8924  0:0007T
521:7  0:5 1:8886  0:0008T
508:3  0:6 1:8821  0:0009T

17.2
24.2
18.6
18.3
15.9
15.9
22.1
26.6
22.5
31.2
36.0
28.6
23.6
23.3
23.2
14.9
12.1
15.7

R. HE ET AL.

Figure 2. Relation of heating time and temperature (Yongcheng char).

KINETIC REACTION MODEL

The heterogeneous char reaction with oxygen is quite complex. It can be
assumed as a two-step chemical reaction: adsorption and desorption
(Essenhigh 1981), which can be described by the Langmuir adsorptiondesorption model in a simple way. Recently, many studies have also
shown that much more complex models may be needed (Haynes and

Figure 3. Weight loss curve (Yongcheng char).

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

Newbury 2000; Hurt and Calo 2001; Suuberg, Wojtowicz, and Calo
1988). On the other hand, an empirically global nth order one-step
reaction model is often used in engineering.
Char pores, which have fractal characteristics (Avnir et al., 1985;
Friesen and Ogunsola 1995; He et al., 1998), have signicant effects on
char combustion. In the pore surface, oxygen concentrations are different
from one site to another site. The Thiele modulus is often used to describe
pore effects (Sattereld and Sherwood l960). The Thiele modulus is
related to classic diffusion law. It is pointed out that the classic diffusion
law is not suitable for fractal pores (Gefen, 1983). Therefore, the pore
effects are studied in He, Sato, and Chen (2002) by the fractal theory
instead of the Thiele modulus. In this paper and in He, Sato, and Chen
(2002), the oxygen concentration is explicitly expressed as the concentration at exterior surface. The oxygen concentration at pore surface
is implicitly studied with the pore fractal properties. In this way, a global
one-step reaction model makes the analysis simpler in mathematics
comparing with that of using more complex rate laws. Although a global
one-step reaction model is used in this paper, it should be aware that the
ideas in this paper and He, Sato, and Chen (2002) should be studied
further for more complex rate laws.
Assume that m is carbon weight (kg) at time t (seconds); k is the
reaction rate (m=s); S is total specic reaction surface area (m2=kg); and
ss is the oxygen concentration at the exterior surface of the thin particle
layer (kg=m3), as shown in Figure 1. As a one-step reaction model, it is
usually assumed that the reaction order is nth reaction order. However,
what the apparent reaction order is has been discussed for many years.
Many researchers (Smith 1982; Smoot and Smith 1985; Croiset et al.,
1996) have reported that to deal with experimental data, the reaction
order can be chosen as 1. Zimbardi (2000) has shown that the oxygen
reaction order could be 0.5 by the shift technique while the apparent
reaction order is from 0.64 to 0.95. In this paper, the apparent reaction
order is assumed as 1. But, one should be aware that other choices of the
reaction order are worthy to be investigated. Here, write an expression of
char combustion in a simple way:
dm

dt

kSss m:

Assume that the oxygen concentration (%) at the exterior surface of

the thin layer is the same as the oxygen concentration (%) in the bulk

R. HE ET AL.

airow due to slow heating rate. However, due to the char particle
temperature changing, the air density (kg=m3) at the exterior surface will
be changed, too. The temperature at the exterior surface is approximately
the same as the temperature measured by the TGA. It can be found from
many textbooks or derived from the ideal gas theory that the air density
at different temperatures at 1 atmosphere pressure can be calculated by
s

1:293
353:28

kg=m3
0:00366T
T

where T (K) is the temperature measured by the TGA. Suppose that the
oxygen concentration is 23.01% (weight). Then, the oxygen density at the
exterior surface is
ss

81:29
kg=m3
T

Write the reaction rate k (m=s) in the form an Arrhenius expression:


k A1 exp

E1
RT


6

where R is the universal gas constant (R 8:314 [J=(mole
K)]); E1 is an

apparent activation energy (J=mole); and A1 is an apparent preexponential factor (m=s). Thus, Equation (3) becomes
dm

dt


mA1 S exp


E1 81:29
T
RT

From Equation 2, it has

dt hdT

where the values of the variable h can be found in Table 2. Then,

Equation (7) becomes

dm

mA1 S exp


E1 81:29h
dT
T
RT

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

Integrating the above equation, it has

m0
ln


A1 S exp


E1 81:29h
dT
T
RT

10

LINEAR REGRESSION
Integration in the right side of Equation (10) is quite complex for
determining parameters A1 and E1 by linear regression. To solve this
integration, Equation (10) is analyzed here. In a certain temperature
range, the true pre-exponential factor and the true activation energy are
independent of the temperature. Many researchers (Gibbins and
Williamson 1998; Russell et al., 2000; Russell et al., 1998) studied the
variable A1 S effects in char combustion. However, in this paper, it is
assumed that A1 S is constant. Actually, the Equations (26) and (17) in
He, Sato, and Chen (2002) show that the apparent pre-exponential factor
can be expressed by this constant A1 S and another term that is related to
the temperature. It means that, under this assumption, the effects of the
temperature on the apparent exponential factor is put on the activation
energy term in the beginning, and can be put back later. Now the problem becomes how to nd out the values of the following expression:
Z
CT

FTdT

11

where

FT exp


E1 81:29h
T
RT

12

The above integration can be illustrated in Figure 4. As an example, in

Figure 4, E1 is set to 100 (kJ=mole). The integrated value from 0 to Ti ,
denoted by CTi , is the shadow area in Figure 4. Choose one temperature T0 in which the value of FT0 is much smaller than FTi and is
almost zero. Consider the triangle constructed by three points: T0 ; Fi (the
point at FTi and Ti . The area of the triangle DT0 Fi Ti is
GTi FTi

Ti

T0
2

13

10

R. HE ET AL.

Figure 4. Illustration of CT at Equation 11.

Let
ZT

GT
CT

14

In the TGA tests, a series of the weight loss w=w0 i vs. temperature Ti
i 1; 2; . . . ; n were recorded, as Figure 3 shows. Then, for a series of
Ti ; Fi i 1; 2; . . . ; n, as shown in Figure 5, it has
CTi

GTi
ZTi

15

For the purpose of convenience, CT, etc. will be used to represent

CTi , etc. in the following part. Substituting Equation (15) into
Equation (10), it has:
ln

m0
A1 S exp
m


E1 81:29h T T0 1


T
Z
RT
2

16

Taking the logarithm on both sides of Equation (16), it has

 m 
0
ln ln
m


ln

40:65hT
ZT

T0


lnA1 S

E1
RT

17

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

11

Figure 5. A series of CTi and GTi values.

h


ln 40:65hT
Let y ln ln mm0
ZT
Then, Equation (17) becomes
y a bx

T0

,x

1
RT ,

a lnA1 S and b E1 .
18

Char contains carbon and ash. In the TGA experiments, only carbon
is converted. Let wash be initial ash weight (kg). Then,
m0


1

wash
w0



w
w0

wash
w0


19

In Equation (19), wash =w0 is the initial ash content (%) and can be
found in Table 2; w=w0 is the ratio of char weight at T to initial char
weight (%), as shown in Figure 3.
NUMERICAL ALGORITHM
If ZT is known, A1 S and E1 can be obtained by linear regression for
Equation (18). However, it can be seen that ZT is also a function of E1 .
To nd out ZT; E1 should be known rst. Therefore, the problem is
reciprocal and very complex. To solve this problem, a numerical iteration
algorithm is presented here. First, let
Z0 T 1

for any T

20

12

R. HE ET AL.

where the superscript represents numerical iteration index. For example,

the superscript ( j) means the j-th iteration. Then, Equation 20 is substituted into Equation (17), and the linear regression is used for
1
1
Equation (18) to nd out an initial value E1 . Substitute E1 into
Equation (12), and obtain C1 T values by Equation (11) with a standard numerical integration method. Then, G1 T is obtained through
Equation (13). Equation 14 gives
G1 T

Z1 T

C1 T

Again substitute Z1 T into Equations (17) and (18), and nd out

This procedure will be repeated. Write this procedure in a general
j
way: if E1 is known, then

2
E1 .

Zj T

Gj T
Cj T

j 1; 2; . . . ; n

21

where the superscript (integer j ) is iteration index. Substituting

j1
Equation (21) into Equations (17) and (18), E1
can be found. This
iteration will continue until it satisfy:
n

jE1

n 1

E1

je

22

where e is the error tolerance. Then, after n iterations, it obtains

n

E1 E1 :

23

After the above iteration process is nished, the value of ln(A1 S),
which is related to pre-exponential factor, is also obtained. The numerical
results have revealed that the above algorithm has good convergence.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The experimental data obtained from the TGA tests were processed by
the above numerical algorithm. The experimental data (w=w0 vs. T) have
three sections, as shown in Figure 3. The left section represents the

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

13

heating-up process prior to char combustion. The right section represents

that the main part of char is ash. Only the middle section represents char
combustion process. Therefore, the data in the middle section are used
for linear regression. The criterion of choosing the start point and end
point for this middle section is that the plot of x and y should looks like a
straight line, as illustrated in Figure 6.
One example of linear regression results is illustrated in Figure 6. The
variables x and y shown in Figure 6 are from Equation (18). The results
of the tests with TGA A are shown in Table 3. In the calculations, the
error tolerance in Equation (22) is taken as e 0:001 (kJ=mole) and the
parameter T0 in Equation (17) is taken as 600 (K).
Table 3 also gives the values of a lnA1 S and b E1 at
0
Z T 1. Actually these values are obtained by using the following
equation without the iterations, instead of Equation (17), in the linear t:
 m 
0
ln ln
m


40:65hT
ln
T

T0


lnA1 S

E1
RT

24

Using Equation (24) in linear t makes the calculation much simpler,

because it omits the iteration procedure. However, from Table 3, it can be
seen that, comparing with the results using Equation (17), using

Figure 6. An example of linear regression for Equation 18 (Yongcheng char).

14

R. HE ET AL.

Table 3. Linear regression results for tests with TGA A

Char
samples

b E1
(kJ=mole)

a lnA1 S
[m3=(kg
s)]

A1 S [m3=(kg
s)]

Shanxi
Yongcheng
Datong
Hebi
Newlands
Chaohua
Luoyang
Adaro
Hongay

118.5  0.8
115.8  0.9
91.9  0.8
140  1
97.0  0.4
108.2  0.6
126.0  0.6
80.3  0.7
98  1

12.9  0.1
12.6  0.1
10.7  0.1
15.6  0.1
11.25  0.06
11.83  0.08
13.78  0.08
9.8  0.1
10.6  0.2

390  103
300  103
45.8  103
5870  103
76.6  103
136.8  103
966.1  103
19  103
39.1  103

b
Z0 T 1

a
Z0 T 1

111.8
108.5
81.2
133
87.3
100.5
119.0
64.7
90

11.0
10.6
8.5
13.5
9.12
9.87
11.76
7.0
8.6

Equation (24) in linear t can produce about 10%  20% errors for E1
(most are about 10%) and 10%  30% errors for ln(A1 S).
The results of the tests with TGA B are shown in Table 4. Comparing
the corresponding data between Table 3 and Table 4, it can be found that
most results are approximately the same despite the TGA crucibles,
heating rates, and sample weights being different. The nal results are
obtained by averaging the corresponding data in Table 3 and 4 (arithmetic averaging), as shown in Table 5. In Table 5, the values of A1 S
exp E1 =RT at 1000 K are also given so that the reaction rates of
these char samples at 1000 K could be compared.
If the parameter T0 in Equation (17) is taken as 0 (K), it can been
found that the results are exactly the same as the results obtained by
taken T0 as 600 (K). It has been found that if the parameter T0 is
appropriately chosen so that the value of FT0 is small enough (close to
zero), then the nal results are the same for different T0 . However, if the
parameter T0 is not appropriately chosen so that the value of FT0 is
relative large (not close to zero), then the relative large errors will occur.
In this paper, T0 can be chosen as T0 2 0; 600 K.
If the specic reaction surface area S is given, the pre-exponential
factor A1 can be calculated. Discussions about how to choose appropriate specic reaction surface S are in He, Sato, and Chen (2002).
However, Equation (3) can be written in the following form:
dm

dt

ka ss m

25

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

15

Table 4. Linear regression results for tests with TGA B

Test number

b (E1 ) (kJ=mole)

a lnA1 S [m3=(kg
s)]

Shanxi

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3

137  0.7
152.3  0.8
140.6  0.7

14.01  0.09
16.1  0.1
14.45  0.09

Datong

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3

104.2  0.3
94.3  0.3
104.7  0.4

11.48  0.05
10.00  0.04
11.42  0.06

Hebi

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3

153.3  0.6
168  1
146.3  0.4

16.06  0.07
17.6  0.1
15.09  0.06

Chaohua

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3

123.0  0.4
114.8  0.3
108.5  0.3

12.26  0.02
11.31  0.04
10.45  0.04

Luoyang

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3

132.7  0.4
131.4  0.6
132.4  0.4

13.55  0.06
13.58  0.08
13.66  0.05

Adaro

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3

90.2  0.2
86.8  0.8
83.5  0.9

10.06  0.03
9.3  0.1
8.6  0.1

Char samples

where ka kS Aa exp E1 =RT. It can be readily seen that

Aa A1 S. Thus, Aa is another kind of pre-exponential factor, but its
dimensional unit is changed to m3=(kg
s). This kind of pre-exponential
factor can be directly calculated from the a values of Equation (18).

Table 5. Linear regression results (arithmetic averaging values)

Char samples
Shanxi
Yongcheng
Datong
Hebi
Newlands
Chaohua
Luoyang
Adaro
Hongay

b (E1 ) (kJ=mole)
137  9
115.8
99  6
152  9
97.0
114  5
131  2
85  3
98

a lnA1 S [m3=(kg
s)]
14.4  0.9
12.6
10.9  0.6
16.1  0.8
11.3
11.5  0.6
13.64  0.08
9.4  0.5
10.6

A1 S exp

E1
RT

0.125
0.265
0.365
0.113
0.693
0.110
0.120
0.439
0.305

(1000 K)

16

R. HE ET AL.

Please note that, to analyze the experimental data in TGA tests, the
effects of the particle temperatures on oxygen concentrations (i.e.
Equation 5) should be included. Otherwise, some results such as the
relations of the pre-exponential factors with fractal properties (He, Sato,
and Chen (2002)) may be missed.

CONCLUSIONS
A TGA experimental technique with continuously rising temperatures
has been used to analyze nine different char samples. A global one-step
kinetic chemical reaction model, in which the effects of varying char
particle temperatures on oxygen concentration are considered, is used to
describe char combustion in the TGA. To deduct the activation energy
and pre-exponential factor, a numerical algorithm has been presented by
mathematical analysis of the kinetic reaction model. The calculations
show that this numerical algorithm has good convergence. The deduced
activation energy and pre-exponential factor are further studied with the
fractal theory in He, Sato, and Chen (2002). The TGA technique with
continuously rising temperatures presented in this paper can be easily
used for studies of char combustion and coal pyrolysis.

NOMENCLATURE
A1
Aa
E1
h0 ; h
k
m
R
t
t0
S
T
T0
T0
w
w0

apparent pre-exponential factor (m=s)

apparent pre-exponential factor (m3=(kg
s))
apparent activation energy (J=mole)
constants
reaction rate (m=s)
carbon weight (kg)
universal gas constant (8.314 J=(mole
K))
time (s)
constant
total specic reaction surface area (m2=kg)
char particle temperature (K)
temperature in which FT0 close to zero
room temperature (K)
char weight (kg)
initial char weight (kg)

THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CHAR COMBUSTION

wash
s
ss
FT
CT

17

initial ash weight (kg)

air density (kg=m3)
oxygen concentration (kg=m3)
a function of T
integration of FT

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