Characteristics of co-combustion and kinetic study on hydrochar with oil shale: A thermogravimetric analysis

Thermogravimetric analysis was conducted to evaluate the kinetic parameters for oil shale, hydrochar and their mixture. The oil shale was blended with hydrochar in the mass proportion of 10-90 wt.% to study their co-combustion performance. The combustion performance of oil shale could be improved by blending with hydrochar. Obvious interactions existed between oil shale and hydrochar in relatively low temperature. The combustion process of hydrochar could be divided into two stages. While the combustion process of oil shale was only one stage. The activation energy of hydrochar and oil shale first decreased and then increased with the conversion degree rising. The average activation energy was not consistent with increasing the mass proportion of oil shale in the blends. When the percentage of oil shale in the mixtures was 70%, the average activation energy reached the minimum value, which was 98.5 kJ/mol and 103.5 kJ/mol obtained by Starink and Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.