Effects of thermal pretreatment in inert atmosphere on the pyrolysis behaviour of south arcot lignite

The effects of thermal pretreatment on the subsequent pyrolysis behaviour of the South Arcot lignite has been studied. Our results indicate that the presence of small amount of moisture in the pretreated lignite has little influence on the yield of tar and char on pyrolysis at higher temperature. However, O-containing functional groups tend to induce cross-linking reactions which in turn affects the evolution of volatiles at lower temperature zone. The aim of the present investigation was to stabilize tar forming entities with rest of the macro-molecular structure, which seems to be sensitive during milder thermal treatment.