Thermal analysis in combustion research

Thermal analysis is widely used in combustion research for both fundamental and practical investigations. Efficient combustion of solid fuels in power plants requires understanding of properties and behavior of fuel and ash under a wide range of conditions. At the Department of Chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry are applied in order to investigate various aspects of combustion and gasification processes: pyrolysis, char reactivity and ash melting behavior. This paper shows examples of the application of simultaneous thermal analysis in these three research areas, and it demonstrates the flexibility of this technique in combustion research.