Thermal behavior and general distributed activation energy model kinetics of Lignite-Chinese herb residues blends during co-pyrolysis

In this work, the pyrolysis behavior of lignite, Chinese herb residues (CHR) and their blends were explored by thermogravimetric analysis. The co-pyrolysis improved the pyrolysis characteristic of lignite, leading to an increment of index D. Analysis results showed that 30%-50% of CHR add ratio was the appropriate choice for copyrolysis with lignite. It was clarified that synergetic effects between lignite with CHR occurred during the copyrolysis treatment. And the promoting effects were dominated at 240 degrees C to 310 degrees C, while it turned to inhibiting effects at 315 degrees C to 355 degrees C. The pyrolysis kinetic evolution was adapted by a new general distributed activation energy model with four pseudo-components. The simulation results demonstrated an excellent match with the adjusted coefficients R-adj(2) over 99.97%. In addition, G-DAEM further considered A-E kinetic compensatory effect. The outcomes enriched the applicability of this model in thermal process of other fuels.