Abstract
Utilization of the energy of a large amount of bio-wastes is of great significance for environment protection and energy supply. This study investigated the co-combustion behavior and kinetics of traditional Chinese medicine eucommia leaf residue and Shixiajiang coal. Experiments were performed in a thermogravimetric analyzer at three different heating rates, namely, 10, 20, and 30°C/min. The experimental results showed that the combustion of the blends composed of eucommia leaf residue and Shixiajiang coal could be divided into three stages. With increase of eucommia leaf residue in blends, the ignition performance is improved first and then tends to be stable, while the combustion parameters, including the ignition index, stationary combustion performance index, ignitability property index, and comprehensive combustion index, first stay the same and then increase. The combustion kinetics of the blends was determined using the Coats-Redfern, Friedman, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods. The results showed that, at the stage of volatile combustion, the change trend of activation energy of the blends is serrated, while at the stage of char combustion, the activation energy of the blends is lower than that of the Shixiajiang coal and decreases with increase of eucommia leaf residue's ratio until 80%. The synergistic effects between the eucommia leaf residue and Shixiajiang coal were analyzed and found that the Shixiajiang coal has a restricting effect on volatilization of the eucommia leaf residue, and the eucommia leaf residue has a promotion effect for combustion of the carbon residues from Shixiajiang coal.