Possible utilization of SRF (solid recovered fuel) in the energy industry is a widely investigated topic, because even though it is economically feasible, its complex reactions make a steady operation hard to maintain. SRF is prepared as a mixture of the well-combustible (but not recyclable) parts of municipal and industrial waste, which consists of mainly various papers, plastics and textiles with very different combustion characteristics. To describe the kinetics of a complex sample like this, the utilization of more advanced methods is recommended. In this work, genetic algorithm was used to fit four different reaction models to thermogravimetric data measured in oxidative atmosphere, and the results were compared. It was concluded that the tested distributed activation energy model and the simple and expanded nth-order models offer only a slightly better fitting value for this special sample, which promotes the usage of the simpler first-order model.
The utilization of challenging solid fuels in the energy industry is urged by environmental requirements. The combustion kinetics of these fuel particles differs markedly from that of pulverized coal, mainly because of their larger sizes, irregular (nonspherical) shapes, and versatile internal pore structures. Although the intrinsic reaction kinetic measurements on very small amounts of finely ground samples of these particles are mostly available, a bridge toward their apparent reaction modeling is not evident. In this study, a method is introduced to build this bridge, the goodness of which was proved on the example of an industrially relevant biofuel. To do this, the results of a macroscopic combustion measurement with real samples in a well-modelable environment have to be used, and for considering some not negligible effects, 3D CFD modeling of the experimental environment is also to be applied. The outcome is the mass-related reaction effectiveness factor as a function of the rate of conversion. This variable can be considered as the active fraction of the entire particle mass on its periphery, and it can be used as the crucial element in modeling the combustion process of the same particle under other circumstances by including the actual boundary conditions. Another advantage of this method is its covering inherently the entire combustion process (water and volatile release, and char combustion) and also its applicability for reactors utilizing bigger particles like fluidized bed combustors.
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