Combustion characteristics of two imported Indonesia coals as a pulverized fuel of thermal power plants

Combustion reactivity and thermal behavior of two imported coals used as a pulverized fuel of commercially thermal power plant were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and large scale test furnace of 200 kg/hr. TGA results showed that combustion efficiency of high moisture coal has lower than reference coal due to the slow combustion completion rate although it has the low ignition temperature, and activation energies of high moisture coal with 79 kJ/mol for overall combustion was higher than reference coal of 53 kJ/mol. Test furnace results ascertained that flame of black band of high moisture coal during the combustion in boiler broke out compared to reference coal and then it becomes to unburned carbon due to the less reactivity and combustion rate. But, Blending combustion of high moisture coal with design coal of high sulfur are available because sulfur content of high moisture coal was too low to generate the low SOx content in flue gas from boiler during the combustion. The ash analysis results show that it was not expected to be associated with slagging and fouling in pulverized coal fired systems due to the low alkali metal content of and compared to bituminous coal.