Observation of coal fragmentation in early stages of combustion

Measurements of coal fragmentation in the early stages of combustion were undertaken in the size range of crushed coals for Chinese Dongjin and Indonesian Roto coals. A flat flame burner fed with a premixed mixture of methane, air and partly hydrogen was used for the burning of a single coal particles. A high speed video camera system was used for the observation of coal fragmentation during approximately 80 msec. Fragmentation is consistently observed in the controlled combustion environment over a gas flame temperature range of 1220K–1320K. The data indicate that a single coal particle often disintegrates into two, three, and sometimes more fragments. The dominant mechanisim of fragmentation is that producing two fragments in primary fragmentation. The Dongjin coal breaks up more extensively than the Roto coal with the frequency of fragmentation exhibiting a strong particle size dependence and a weaker gas flame temperature dependence. The mean time of primary fragmentation for the Dongjin coal falls to between 10 msec and 20 msec and does not remarkably vary with particle size and gas flame temperature. The mean time of primary fragmentation for the Roto coal is strongly dependent on the particle size, whilst shows less gas flame temperature dependence.