Simultaneous combustion of waste plastics with coal for pulverized coal injection application Article

Gupta, S, Sahajwalla, V, Wood, J. (2006). Simultaneous combustion of waste plastics with coal for pulverized coal injection application . ENERGY & FUELS, 20(6), 2557-2563. 10.1021/ef060271g

cited authors

  • Gupta, S; Sahajwalla, V; Wood, J

authors

abstract

  • A bench-scale study was conducted to investigate the effect of simultaneous cofiring of waste plastic with coal on the combustion behavior of coals for PCI (pulverized coal injection) application in a blast furnace. Two Australian coals, premixed with low- and high-density polyethylene, were combusted in a drop tube furnace at 1473 K under a range of combustion conditions. In all the tested conditions, most of the coal blends including up to 30% plastic indicated similar or marginally higher combustion efficiency compared to those of the constituent coals even though plastics were not completely combusted. In a size range up to 600 μm, the combustion efficiency of coal and polyethylene blends was found be independent of the particle size of plastic used. Both linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are shown to display similar influence on the combustion efficiency of coal blends. The effect of plastic appeared to display greater improvement on the combustion efficiency of low volatile coal compared to that of a high volatile coal blend. The study further suggested that the effect of oxygen levels of the injected air in improving the combustion efficiency of a coal-plastic blend could be more effective under fuel rich conditions. The study demonstrates that waste plastic can be successfully coinjected with PCI without having any adverse effect on the combustion efficiency particularly under the tested conditions. © 2006 American Chemical Society.

publication date

  • November 1, 2006

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 2557

end page

  • 2563

volume

  • 20

issue

  • 6