Characterization and Reaction Kinetics of Combustion Biomass, Coal and Biomass-Coal Blend

• Main Author: Zahro Hanifa, Maulia
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/38434
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Biomass is one of the most abundant sources of renewable energy in Indonesia. The depleting amount of fossil fuel reserves encourage the Government of Indonesia to seek alternative energy sources to meet Indonesia's growing energy needs. Among the various properties of biomass, characteristics and kinetics of biomass combustion are important to be identified in order to determine proper utilization. However, research on the characteristics and kinetics of biomass combustion in Indonesia is still very limited. The present work will determine the characteristics and kinetics of biomass combustion reaction in the form of the palm oil empty fruit bunches, rubber wood, bagasse of sugar cane and mixed with coal. Characterization is done by proximate and ultimate analysis, analysis of lignocellulose characteristic, analysis of combustion characteristicand kinetic analysis on biomass. This research is done by experimental method and data analysis. TGA (Thermogravimetric Analyzer) is used as the main instrument analysis in this research. The variations in this study were variation of TGA heating rate (5oC / min, 10oC / min, 10oC/menit, 20oC/ min) and the type of biomass or its blend with coal. The results from TGA is the thermal degradation profile of the biomass. Furthermore the data will be used in kinetics analysis. The kinetic analysis was performed by Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW) method. All three biomass have higher volatile content than coal, which is 65-73%. However, coal has a much larger fixed carbon content of 38%. The combustion process consists of evaporation stages, combustion reaction stages and burnout stages. Stages of combustion reaction consist of devolatilization reaction stage (stage 1) and char combustion reaction (stage 2). The combustion reaction begins with an exothermic reaction then followed by an endothermic reaction. Biomass combustion, stage 1 is controlled by a chemical reaction with activation energy (E) 44-85 kJ/mol, while stage 2 is controlled by a diffusion process with E 9-28 kJ/mol. The coal combustion reaction is controlled by the diffusion process with E 26-48 kJ/mol. In the coal-biomass mixture the reaction at both stages is controlled by an E diffusion process of 10-65 kJ/mol.