A method for in-situ measurement of calorific value of coal: a numerical study

Abstract Coal calorific value is an important indicator in the combustion optimization of power plants and the calculation of operating efficiency. Hence, the in-situ measurement of the coal calorific value is needed. This study developed an in-situ calorific value determination method and established the related model. The feasibility was evaluated by investigating the impacts of the gas flow rate, coal mass and wall thickness on measurement processes and measurement results. Additionally, the effect of ending the measurement early on the measurement error was studied in order to speed up the measurement. The comparison results between the presented calorimeter and the bomb calorimeter show the performance gap. However, measurement time and measurement error can be reduced by increasing the gas flow rate and coal mass and shortening the length of measurement. Applying this calorimeter is a feasible path to measure the calorific value of coal in-situ.