a The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA
† The Tennessee Valley Authority, Chattanooga, TN 37401, USA
Abstract:
A new experimental method is described for non-isothermal thermogravimetry (TG) involving combustion of mixtures of sieved coal with sieved calcium-containing sorbents. This rapid TG method utilizes a baseline for TG combustion of coal alone, derives an equation that gives a semi-quantitative measure (±10% repeatability) of the coal's reactive sulphur retained by the sorbent, the extent of retention of S02 generated in situ during combustion varying with different sorbents. The method permits direct variation in separate experiments of the calcium-to-sulphur ratio during combustion and relative ranking of different sorbents by retention of reactive sulphur in combustion. Relative rankings are presented for three pre-calcined natural stones (two limestones and one dolomite); these results correlate with relative rankings from another TG method reported in the literature. It is suggested that this new method is useful for pre-screening the effectiveness of S02 sorbents considered for use in fluidizedbed combustion of coal.