Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558

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Journal of the Energy Institute

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Experimental study on ignition and combustion of coal-rice husk

blends pellets in air and oxy-fuel conditions
Chengxin Wang, Haobo Bi, Xuedan Jiang, Chunlong Jiang, Qizhao Lin*
Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The ignition and combustion characteristics of anthracite-rice husk (AC-RH) and bituminous coal-rice
Received 3 December 2019 husk (BC-RH) pellets were investigated in a vertical heating tube furnace under different experimental
Received in revised form condition, for gas temperature (873 Ke1073 K) and under air and different oxygen concentration (21
17 January 2020
e70%) in CO2/O2 atmosphere. The investigation of the ignition and combustion characteristics focused on
Accepted 20 January 2020
ignition mechanism, ignition delay, ignition temperature and combustion process. AC-RH pellets had two
Available online 23 January 2020
ignition mechanism in CO2/O2 atmosphere: homogeneous ignition of volatile and heterogeneous igni-
tion of char. Heterogeneous ignition region decreased while homogeneous ignition increased as rice husk
Keywords:
Single pellets
blending ratio increased in oxygen concentration-gas temperature plane. Only homogeneous ignition
Biomass was observed when rice husk blending ratio was 30%. As for BC-RH pellets, only homogeneous ignition
Ignition mechanism occurred in all experimental conditions. The effect of the rice husk blending on the anthracite was more
Ignition behavior pronounced than the bituminous coal for ignition mechanism. As oxygen concentration increased, a
Oxy-fuel combustion significant reduction in ignition delay and ignition temperature was observed at low rice husk blending
ratio and low gas temperature. but at 1073 K, high oxidizer temperature weakened the effect of biomass
blending and oxygen concentration on ignition delay and ignition temperature. Meanwhile, at 20% and
30% rice husk blending ratio, it also weakened the effect of oxygen concentration and oxidizer tem-
perature on ignition delay and ignition temperature. In contrast, blending ratio had a more significant
effect on ignition behavior. The replacement of N2 by CO2 at the same oxygen concentration contributed
to an increase in ignition delay time and internal ignition temperature, which suppressed the ignition
behavior. Different ignition mechanisms corresponded to different combustion processes.
© 2020 Energy Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Coal, as a fossil fuel, would continue to be widely used as power
generation in the foreseeable future because of its low cost and
huge reserves [1]. Coal also played a leading role in energy structure
in China. The combustion was the most widely utilization mode to
obtain energy. In combustion process, a lot of pollutants would be
generated, such as SO2, NOX, CO2 and so on. According to IEA date
statistics, 46% of the total CO2 emissions in the world in 2014 were
caused by coal consumption [2], which lead to greenhouse effect.
Therefore, it was critical to develop CO2 emission reduction
technology.
Oxy-fuel combustion [3e5], namely flue gas recirculation
combustion, was widely regarded as one of the most promising
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qlin@ustc.edu.cn (Q. Lin).
technologies to capture and storage CO2. The concept of this tech-
nology was that pure oxygen instead of air as an oxidizer, and then
recirculating gas gas (RFG) was also fed into the furnace to achieve
the CO2 enrichment, and eventually discharged the flue gas with a
concentration of more than 90% CO2 [6] to capture and storage CO2.
There was no generation of thermal NOX since without N2 in the
combustion atmosphere. And NOX in the RFG encountered the
flame-generated hydrocarbons would be decomposed near the
flame, the mechanism indicated by Scheffknecht et al. [7]. In this
work, the main experimental atmosphere used in this experiment
was CO2/O2 (O2% ¼ 21%e70%), which simulated the oxy-fuel com-
bustion atmosphere without introducing recycled flue gas to
furnace, and this method simplified the experimental equipment.
Zhou et al. [8] and Shan et al. [9] also used the CO2/O2 atmosphere
to simulate oxy-fuel atmosphere to study the ignition and com-
bustion characteristics of slime and biomass.
The theoretical and experimental researches on oxy-fuel com-
bustion technology was carried out only based on pulverized coal

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joei.2020.01.017
1743-9671/© 2020 Energy Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558
boilers in China [10e12] [10e12] [10e12]. The problems of exces-
sive boiler size and manufacturing cost [13] due to RFG can be
solved when oxy-fuel technology applied to circulating fluidized
beds (CFB). The application of combination of these two technol-
ogies was an efficient approach for centralized process and
reduction in a significant amount of pollutant emissions comparing
with conventional combustion in pulverized coal boiler. But this
combination was still at the experimental research stage in recent
years. Southeast University has carried out the several experiments
of oxy-fuel combustion in CFB among various fuels including
different rank of coal, biomass, sludge and etc. And systematically
the difference of various pollutants (CO, CO2, NO, NOx and SOx)
emissions between CO2 and N2 atmospheres and different oper-
ating parameters has been analyzed [14e17]. Bu et al. [18] estab-
lished a model for predicting the volatilization behavior of single
particle also reported the ignition characteristics of single bitumi-
nous coal particle under CO2 and N2 atmospheres in fluidized bed
[19], found that the evolution temperature of single coal particle
was similar in both atmosphere in the process of devolatilization.
On the other hand, the ignition time decreases rapidly and then
decreases slowly as the oxygen concentration increased. It was
consistent with the results obtained by Ref. [8] from the single
slime coal combustion experiment conducted in a vertical heating
tube furnace in CO2/O2 atmosphere. However, for oxy-fuel com-
bustion in CFB, there were a few researches on the ignition and
combustion characteristics of anthracite, bituminous coal and
biomass from ignition time, ignition temperature and ignition
mechanism and combustion process.
Due to the fierce and irregular movement of fuel particles in the
process of CFB combustion and restriction of the its structure, it was
difficult to accurately and quantitatively evaluate the parameters
variation of single fuel particle at ignition and combustion process
in different experimental condition by optical method. Therefore, in
this work, the investigation on ignition and combustion process of
single spherical fuel pellets with a diameter of 9 mm was conducted
in a vertical heating furnace instead of a pilot scale CFB. Pulverized
fuel molded into large-size fuel pellets, which increasing the energy
density and bulk density. It was easy to observe ignition and
combustion behavior of pellets, including volatile combustion,
flame propagation, and char combustion process. In this experi-
ment, the same diameter and density spherical pellets was carefully
manufactured by mold to ensure eliminating the impact of the size
and density on volatile degradation and char combustion. Many
researchers have also studied the combustion characteristics of
large-size particles in vertical or horizontal heating furnaces for
different fuels [9]. Ponzio et al. [20] summarized the region of the
three ignition mechanisms and established a formula for the igni-
tion temperature under different oxidizer temperature and oxygen
concentration. Liu et al. [21] studied on the impact of difference
convection intensity on ignition mechanism and divided the
different ignition mechanism regions, including heterogeneous
ignition, hetero-homogeneous ignition and homogeneous ignition
of coal single particles. Zhou et al. [22] investigated the critical
condition for changes in ignition mechanism under the difference
of gas temperature, oxygen temperature and gas flow rate. Kijo-
Kleczkowska et al. [23] reported that chamber temperature and
gas velocity had significant impact on ignition temperature,
maximum temperature and volatile and char combustion time of
pellets of sewage sludge with reference to that of coal and biomass,
and found lower chamber temperature and lower flow velocity
were beneficial to fuel combustion.
Biomass was a only carbon-based energy source after fossil
energy [24]. Compared with the thermochemical conversion
technologies, such as gasification, liquefaction and pyrolysis. The
direct combustion was effective and low cost way to convert it into
1545
energy. And Saeed et al. [25] analyzed in detail that biomass was
characterized by high volatile content, high reactivity, low heat
value, low fixed carbon and low nitrogen and sulfur content [26].
Given the advantages of biomass as a fuel and the pressure from
policy to dispose of large amounts of biomass, biomass would
gradually become a fuel option for large power generation plants.
Many researchers have investigated the ignition and combustion
behavior of biomass. Riaza et al. [27] reported that the combustion
behavior of four different sources of biomass was similar with each
other, but differed from that of coal. After spherical envelope flame
formed, the higher temperatures appeared in the char combustion.
Lu et al. [28] evaluated the effect of particle shape and size on
devolatilization of biomass particle. Shan et al. [9] experimentally
studied the ignition and combustion of the rice husk and pinus
bungeana pellets under air and CO2/O2 atmospheres concluded that
the biomass pellets exhibited homogeneous ignition when O2%
50% and heterogeneous ignition when O2%50%. But, power gen-
eration plants around the world showed widespread interest in co-
firing of coal and biomass due to the urgent necessity of biomass
treatment and a series of shortcomings caused by the individual
combustion of biomass. Co-combustion between coal and biomass
was regarded as an environmental friendly method, which can
reduce the emission of the harmful pollutant such as NOX, SOX, CO
and the greenhouse gas (GHG) [29e36]. Besides, the blend fuel
improved the ignition and combustion behavior from the reduction
in ignition delay, the ignition temperature and burnout, compared
with individual coal combustion [37e39]. Furthermore, an inter-
action effect of co-combustion was reported in detail under N2/O2
and CO2/O2 atmosphere [40,41]. Many researchers have studied the
co-combustion characteristics and emissions of different coal and
biomass in various combustors or boilers when oxy-fuel combus-
tion technologies was applied to the fuel of blending biomass to
coal [30,42e46]. It would significantly reduce GHG emissions. Kijo-
Kleczkowska et al. [47] evaluated, for the samples in pellet form, the
effect of blending sewage sludge into various coals on combustion
behavior Hu et al. [48] reported the co-firing characteristics of coal
and masson pine, found there were two combustion stages for
blends, which were devolatilization and char combustion, but only
one for coal. The optimum blend ratio was 80% coal and 20%
masson pine, it had similar kinetic parameters and ash character-
istics with coal. Mortari et al. [49] suggested the high volatile
content of sugarcane bagasse resulted in, not only significant
improvement on the combustion behavior of coal, but also strong
interaction effect, when blended.
In this paper, the ignition and combustion characteristics of AC-
RH and BC-RH which were molded into spherical pellets with 9 mm
diameter were investigated in a vertical heating tube furnace. The
experiment was conducted in different experimental condition, for
different gas temperature (873 Ke1073 K), under air atmosphere
and different oxygen concentration (21%e70%) in CO2/O2 atmo-
sphere simulating the oxy-fuel combustion condition in CFB. The
investigation of the ignition and combustion characteristics
focused on ignition mechanism, ignition delay, ignition tempera-
ture and combustion process. And the effect of biomass blending
ratio on ignition and combustion behavior was also evaluated.
2. Experiment
2.1. Coal and biomass blends samples
In this study, two coals: anthracite (AC), bituminous coal (BC)
and a biomass: rice husk (RH) obtained from Huaibei coal mine and
Hefei in Anhui province, China, respectively. Then the two coals
were blended with rice husk in ratio, in powder form, respectively.
And the powder was molded into 9 mm diameter spherical pellet
1546 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558

with a certain pressure. The AC-RH blend and BC-RH blend pellets
were prepared with rice husk ratio of 10, 20, 30 wt% and the rest
part was AC and BC. The blend pellets named as A90R10, A80R20,
A70R30, B90R10, B80R20, B70R30, respectively. Next all the sam-
ples were dried in muffle furnace at 105  C for 24 h. A hole with a
depth of 4.5 mm and a diameter of 1 mm was drilled into the
pellets. The purpose was to insert thermocouple to measure the
center temperature of pellet. The proximate and ultimate analyses
of coal and biomass were given in Table 1.

2.2. Experimental equipment and methods

A vertical heating tube furnace was used in this study. The

equipment schematic diagram was shown in Fig. 1. Oxygen (1) and
nitrogen (2) were used to form air. Oxygen (1) (mole fractions of
21%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 70%) and carbon dioxide (3) were used to
simulate the oxy-fuel combustion conditions. And the two gases Fig. 1. The schematic of the experimental equipment: 1. Oxygen cylinder 2. Nitrogen
(oxygen and nitrogen or oxygen and carbon dioxide) were mixed in cylinder 3. Carbon dioxide cylinder 4. Mass flow controller 5. Mass flow setting 6. gas
mixing chamber 7. steady flow chamber 8. vertical heating tube furnace 9. Pellets
the gas mixing chamber (6) and the steady flow chamber (7) before
location 10. Heat control cabinet 11. supportive rod 12. Thermocouple for flow tem-
entering the vertical heating tube furnace (8). The gas flow rate perature controller 13. Thermocouple for measuring internal ignition temperature 14.
always maintain 10 L/min. Temperature demonstration and feedback 15. Camera 16. Computer.
Gas temperature represented the mixing gas flow temperature
surrounding the pellets, set to 873 K, 973 K and 1073 K, detected by
thermocouple (12). And the furnace would be heated until the
temperature detected by thermocouple (12) reached the set value.
The blend pellets was fixed at the end of the thermocouple (13)
with high temperature resistance inorganic adhesive. The probe of
thermocouple (13) was located at the center of the blend pellets to
obtain the internal temperature of pellets. Thermocouple wire was
sheathed in corundum tube with inner diameter of 1.5 mm. And the
corundum tube with thermocouple wire was fixed to the sup-
portive rod. The supportive rod was limited to slide way, which can
only move up and down. When the supportive rod with corundum
tube moved to bottom position of slide way, the pellets reached a
specified location that can be observed by camera. And schematic
diagram of the bracket between the thermocouple and pellets was
exhibited in Fig. 3. And the data would be fed back to the Agilent
34970 A temperature demonstration (14), temperature detection
one time per second, then transmitted to computer (16). When the
gas flow rate at 10 L/min stabilized through the furnace, and the
temperature detected by thermocouple (12) was also steady at the Fig. 2. The actual photo of the test rig.
setting value, the particles would be placed in this determined
condition for experiments. The canon EOS 7D mark II camera (15)
with 60 frames per second was used to capture the performance of characteristics of the pellets was investigated in this study
ignition and combustion of the pellets through the observation including oxygen concentration (O2%), gas temperature (Tg) and the
window. And the actual photo of test rig was shown in Fig. 2. blending ratio of rice husk (BRH). Gas temperature was set to 873 K,
The three factor affecting the ignition and combustion 973 K and 1073 K (named as A1, A2, A3). Blending ratio of rice husk
including AC-RH and BC-RH was set to 0%, 10%, 20% and 30%w/w
(named as B1, B2, B3, B4). The two kinds of atmosphere (CO2/O2 and
Table 1
air atmosphere) was also investigated. The oxygen concentration
Proximate and ultimate analyses of coal and biomass.
was set to 21%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 70%v/v under O2/CO2 atmosphere
Component AC (%) BC(%) RH (%) (named as C1, C2, C3, C4, C5), the air atmosphere was named as C6.
(Ash)ara 19.13 10.02 11.67 Both of AC-RH and BC-RH pellets was conducted in experimental
(Moisture)ar 4.42 10.40 7.45 conditions, which was given in Table 2.
(Volatiles)ar 10.74 34.09 73.08
(Fixed carbon)arb 69.29 55.09 7.8
(LHV)c (MJ/kg)db 25.75 26.30 17.53 3. Results and discussion
(Carbon)db 67.78 66.18 39.88
(Hydrogen)db 3.16 4.26 5.54 3.1. The observation of ignition phenomenon and ignition
(Oxygen)db 6.46 6.62 36.71
mechanism
(Nitrogen)db 1.09 1.26 0.46
(Sulfur)db 0.638 0.866 0.48
When pellets reached its designated position, pellets which was
LHV ¼ Low heating value.
a
Ar indicated the abbreviation of as received basis.
exposed to hot gas flow, resulted in the surface temperature of pellets
b
Calculated by difference. rose by convective heat transfer of gas flow and the radiation of the
c
db indicated the abbreviation of as dry basis. furnace wall, the increase of internal temperature was caused by heat
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558 1547

Fig. 4. Four kinds of typical ignition phenomena observed in experiments: (a, b) red
and bright spot in the bottom; (c, d) volatiles flame. (For interpretation of the refer-
ences to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this
article.)

recorded by camera under CO2 atmosphere. The left side of Fig. 6

represented the ignition phenomena of AC and AC-RH, the right
side of Fig. 6 represented the ignition phenomena of BC and BC-RH.
The images were ordered by increasing oxygen concentration from
top (O2% ¼ 21%) to bottom (O2% ¼ 70%), and ordered by increasing
BRH from left (BRH ¼ 0%) to right (BRH ¼ 30%). Fig. 6(a, b, c) rep-
resented the gas temperature of 873 K, 973 K and 1073 K,
respectively.

3.1.2. Ignition mechanism of co-combustion coal and biomass

blends pellets
Fig. 6 showed the ignition phenomenon of single AC-RH and BC-
RH pellets under different experimental conditions. For AC and AC-
RH, as shown in Figs. 6(a) and Fig. 5, when Tg ¼ 873 K, O2% ¼ 21%, as
Fig. 3. the bracket between the thermocouple and pellets. the BRH increase, especially, when BRH increased from 20% to 30%,
the ignition mechanism changed from heterogeneous ignition to
Table 2 homogeneous ignition. However When Tg ¼ 873 K, O2% ¼ 30%e70%,
The experimental condition for combination of three experimental factors. as the BRH increased from 10% to 20%, the transition of ignition
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 mechanism happened. As shown in Fig. 6(b), when Tg ¼ 973 K,
A1 B1 A1B1C1 A1B1C2 A1B1C3 A1B1C4 A1B1C5 A1B1C6
O2 ¼ 21%e50%, the transitions from heterogeneous ignition of char
B2 A1B2C1 A1B2C2 A1B2C3 A1B2C4 A1B2C5 A1B2C6 to homogeneous ignition of volatile occurred when the BRH varied
B3 A1B3C1 A1B3C2 A1B3C3 A1B3C4 A1B3C5 A1B3C6 from 10% to 20%. For the case of O2% ¼ 70%, this transition occurred
B4 A1B4C1 A1B4C2 A1B4C3 A1B4C4 A1B4C5 A1B4C6 when BRH varied from 0% to 10%. As shown in Fig. 6(c), when
A2 B1 A2B1C1 A2B1C2 A2B1C3 A2B1C4 A2B1C5 A1B1C6 Tg ¼ 1073 K, O2% ¼ 21%e30%, the transitions of ignition mechanism
B2 A2B2C1 A2B2C2 A2B2C3 A2B2C4 A2B2C5 A2B2C6 occurred when the RH blending ratio varied from 10% to 20%. For
B3 A2B3C1 A2B3C2 A2B3C3 A2B3C4 A2B3C5 A2B3C6
the case of O2% ¼ 40e70%, this transition occurred when the BRH
B4 A2B4C1 A2B4C2 A2B4C3 A2B4C4 A2B4C5 A2B4C6
varied from 0% to 10%. Fig. 5 showed the distribution of ignition
A3 B1 A3B1C1 A3B1C2 A3B1C3 A3B1C4 A3B1C5 A3B1C6 mechanism in the oxygen concentration - blending ratio of rice
B2 A3B2C1 A3B2C2 A3B2C3 A3B2C4 A3B2C5 A3B2C6
husk plane (O2%-BRH plane) with a constant gas temperature. And
B3 A3B3C1 A3B3C2 A3B3C3 A3B3C4 A3B3C5 A3B3C6
B4 A3B4C1 A3B4C2 A3B4C3 A3B4C4 A3B4C5 A3B4C6 the dotted line in figures were the critical line of the distribution
area between heterogeneous ignition and homogeneous ignition. It
was obviously seen from Fig. 5 that, when the gas temperature
conduction and igniting by high temperature atmosphere eventually. increased, the O2% and BRH corresponding to transition of the
The ignition mechanism was classified as homogeneous ignition, ignition mechanism gradually reduced, as the result of high Tg
heterogeneous ignition and joint homo-heterogeneous ignition, ac- strongly improved heating rate of the pellets and provided intense
cording to the initial observation of the combustion phenomenon, ignition phenomena.
which was in accordance with Zhou et al. and Ponzio et al. [8,20]. The spatial distribution of ignition mechanism for AC-RH was
illustrated by scatter plot as shown in Fig. 7. The critical plane of
3.1.1. Typical ignition phenomena homogeneous ignition and heterogeneous ignition can be clearly
Fig. 4 exhibited four kinds of typical ignition phenomenon. As figured out from the scatter plot. The distribution of ignition
shown in Fig. 4(a and b), the first visible sign of combustion was the mechanism and was located on the upper-right part for homoge-
bright and red spot in the bottom of pellet without volatile flame neous ignition and lower-left part for heterogeneous ignition. The
which was char combustion which was heterogeneous ignition of condition for the distribution of lower-left part was low BRH and
char. As shown in Fig. 4(c and d), the first visible sign of combustion low O2% which caused the low devolatilization rate of pellets, The
was flame combustion of the volatile. This ignition phenomenon gas flow blew off the released volatile contributed to the volatile
was interpreted as homogeneous ignition of volatile, the flame can concentration at the vicinity of the blend pellets decreased below
be different with each other in location, brightness and shape, due its flammability limit [50]. Therefore, the bottom part of the
to the strong disturbance of gas flow in tube furnace and the devolatilized pellets that was char directly oxidized by oxygen in
different intensity of the devolatilization in various experimental the high temperature gas flow01, which was heterogeneous igni-
conditions. tion of char manifested as the red and bright bottom part of pellets.
As shown in Fig. 6, the images of the pellets ignition were The condition for the distribution of the upper-right part was high
1548 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558
Fig. 5. The distribution of ignition mechanism in the BRH-oxygen concentration plane at different gas temperature: (a) Tg ¼ 873 K; (b) Tg ¼ 973 K; (c) Tg ¼ 1073 K.
BRH and high O2%. A large amount of volatile rapidly released from
component of RH in pellets as the BRH increased. It would result in
volatile enrichment around the pellets easily. Meanwhile, the ox-
ygen that sufficiently mixed with volatile reduced the activation
energy of volatile ignition and formed flame in ignition, namely
homogeneous ignition of volatile. Elevating Tg from 873 K to 1073 K
had a significant improvement on heating rate of the pellets and
enhancement on fiercer ignition phenomena of pellets exhibiting
by the increase of the devolatilization rate before ignition. And it
also contributed to the decline of the activation energy of volatile
ignition. As shown in Fig. 5, the critical line in the distribution figure
of ignition mechanism gradually moved from the area of high BRH
and high O2% to the area of low BRH and low O2% with the elevation
of Tg suggesting the homogeneous ignition was easy to appear at
high gas temperature.
The ignition mechanism of AC in all experimental conditions
showed heterogeneous ignition, interpreting 10.74% volatile and
69.29% char content in AC caused the devolatilized char without the
form of envelope flame was directly attacked by oxygen in CO2/O2
atmosphere. For AC-RH, it was clear that, except for the case of
Tg ¼ 873 K, O2% ¼ 21%, all other cases occurred the transition from
heterogeneous ignition to homogeneous ignition as the BRH
changing from 0% to 20%. BRH dominated ignition mechanism
compared to Tg and O2%. But there was making little contribute to
the ignition mechanism of AC when BRH was more than 20%,
instead, reducing the heat value of blend pellets. Sahu et al. [51]
studied blending more biomass on coal not necessarily meant
better combustion characteristics has already been obtained when
blending less biomass.
For BC and BC-RH, it can be seen from the right side of Fig. 6.
Except for the heterogeneous ignition of BC and B90R10 samples in
condition of Tg ¼ 873 K, O2% ¼ 21%, homogeneous ignition of vol-
atile occurred in all other experimental conditions. An interesting
phenomenon was observed, for cases of BC and B90R10. The igni-
tion accompanied by small brightly shining sparks scattered
around the pellets without attachment, then the sparks
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558 1549

Fig. 6. The ignition phenomena of anthracite and bituminous coal and their blends pellets under different conditions.
1550 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558
Fig. 7. The distribution of ignition mechanism at different gas temperature of the AC-
RH under various conditions which were gas temperature, oxygen concentration and
BRH under CO2/O2 atmosphere.
extinguished quickly in a short time accompanying with the
simultaneous appearance of the flame. The volatiles sprayed from
the surface and inside through the cracks of the pellets and carried
a small amount of powder when ignition. The powder ignited at the
moment of being blown out. This phenomenon also reflected
vigorous process of devolatilization. And the addition of RH played
a certain role in ignition mechanism in the condition of Tg ¼ 873 K,
O2% ¼ 21%. The ignition mechanism would remain the state of
homogeneous ignition regardless of experimental conditions. This
was mainly due to the volatile content of BC.
3.1.3. The evolution of ignition process
As shown in Fig. 8, the 14 typical performance of the evolution of
ignition process in the CO2/O2 atmosphere were selected. The first
row represented heterogeneous ignition of char of AC-RH pellets,
the bright spots at the bottom of the pellets were initially observed.
Then the bright spots gradually spread over the entire pellets sur-
face along the downwind direction of the gas flow. It was worth
mentioning that the volatile flame combustion of A80R20 occurred
after the heterogeneous ignition. The flame was transparent yellow,
short length, short duration for only 12 s. Then the flame extin-
guished. Char began to combust indicating the oxygen concentra-
tion and devolatilization rate determined by this condition can only
sustain the volatile ignition for a short time. The left side of the
second row was under Tg ¼ 873 K O2% ¼ 30%. The first visible
combustion was homogeneous ignition of volatile, the flame which
was length short, light yellow, thin thickness did not prevent
completely oxygen from attacking directly the surface of the pellet
at the presence of volatile flame. Then flame extinguished, char
combust further. The right side of the second row, it was obviously
seen that volatile flame was ejected from the crack of pellet indi-
cating it combusted intensely, and the flame protected greatly the
char from oxygen attacking until flame extinguished under this
condition. The third row: flame appeared at the bottom firstly, and
rose up gradually till the whole pellets was wrapped attaching the
surface of the pellet. The left side of the fourth row was under
Tg ¼ 1073 K O2% ¼ 50%. Although the first visible combustion was
homogeneous ignition of volatile, the flame was fragile (trans-
parent yellow, short length, short duration), extinguished after the
pellet ignition 2 s. But the right side of the fourth row, because of
more than 20% RH blending on AHB, there was tough flame (bright
yellow, long duration). The right side of the fifth row, on the con-
trary, the first visible combustion was heterogeneous ignition, then
the volatile flame occur after the pellet ignition 12 s. And the
evolution of the flame did not start at the bottom but from the
upper part of the pellets in which the devolatilization of the bottom
part of the pellet was not completed. The last two rows represented
homogeneous ignition of blends of BC-RH pellets. As the gas tem-
perature and oxygen concentration increased, the volatile flame
became shorter and brighter, owing to in the condition of high gas
temperature and high oxygen concentration, the released volatile
was able to sufficiently contacted with oxygen molecules in the
vicinity of the pellets and did not need to blow off the pellets at a
great distance to reach its flammability limit [21].
3.2. Combustion processes of blend pellets
Fig. 9 exhibited the several typical combustion processes of AC-
RH and BC-RH pellets. All experimental condition could influenced
the combustion process of pellets, such as Tg, O2%, and BRH. Tg and
O2% affected the activation energy of combustion reaction and
heating rate of pellets which changed external combustion phe-
nomena. But addition of RH transformed the component of AC or
BC, which fundamentally changed the internal composition ratio of
each substance, thereby affected the combustion process, such as
duration of volatile combustion and char combustion, etc. But the
same ignition phenomena may be followed by different combus-
tion phenomena.
3.2.1. Combustion processes of anthracite and its blend pellets
As shown in Fig. 9(aed), there were four typical combustion
phenomena of AC-RH pellets. Fig. 9(a) showed the process of het-
erogeneous ignition and heterogeneous combustion which was no
flame in the whole process. Pellets gradually turned red from the
windward side, and spread over the entire pellets, After that, it
gradually dimmed from the windward side till extinguished. This
combustion phenomenon tended to appear in the case of BRH ¼ 0%.
The combustion process without volatile flame was also due to the
relative low Tg and O2%. As shown in Fig. 9(bed) the combustion
process can be divide into three stages. Firstly, the flame generated
at the ignition position, then envelope flame formed and gradually
wrapped the whole pellets. Secondly, char, began to heterogeneous
combustion. The bottom part of the pellets was attacked by oxygen
which its devolatilization was completed, while the upper part was
not. And the flame presented at the upper part simultaneously. The
flame faded and char heterogeneously combusted forward. This
explained that volatile matter flame can effectively protect the
particle surface from the direct oxygen attack. Thirdly, after the
devolatilization completed for the whole pellets, the pellets with
dazzling light gradually became dim and burnout finally. The value
of BRH directly impacted on the duration of devolatilization pro-
cess, because of the more volatile content of RH than AC. Even
though the combustion stage was the same under these several
experimental conditions, Tg together with O2% dominated length
and brightness of flame along with the combustion rate of volatile
and char. There was quick devolatilization when the pellets
exposed to higher Tg atmosphere. And higher Tg and O2% resulted in
the higher the mass diffusion rate of oxygen. The oxygen molecule
contacted with carbon more frequently, thus combustion both of
volatile and char was accelerated.
3.2.2. Combustion processes of bituminous coal and its blend pellets
As shown in Fig. 9(eeh), there were four typical combustion
phenomena of BH and BC-RH pellets. Fig. 9(e) showed, although the
first visible sign of combustion was char combustion corresponding
to heterogeneous ignition, the flame suddenly developed after
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558 1551

Fig. 8. The ignition evolution images of several typical cases of anthracite and bituminous coal and their blends pellets were displayed.

ignition. This result was due to the lower Tg and O2% atmosphere
cannot enough to maintain heterogeneous oxidation of char for the
entire combustion process. the volatile concentration gradually
increased for BC devolatilizing continuously. The volatile was
heated by atmosphere and exothermic reaction of char oxidation
two reason caused its reached flammability limit . It was obviously
seen that volatile flame was ejected from the pellet for BC-RH
suggesting fierce combustion process. Fig. 9(f) and (g) depicted
the first appearance of homogeneous combustion of volatile, sub-
sequently the flame extinguished. Then, heterogeneous combus-
tion of char happened till burned out which was similar to
Fig. 9(bed). As shown in Fig. 9(h), the phenomenon of volatile
combustion and char oxidized happened simultaneously on the
entire surface at Tg ¼ 973 K, O2% ¼ 70%. The flame enveloping the
surface of the pellets cannot protect the char on the surface of the
pellets from oxidation anymore in this condition, exhibited as
coexistence of bright flame and dazzling sparks. This phenomenon
was interpreted as joint homo-heterogeneous combustion mech-
anism. Compared with AC-RH, the brightness and length of flame
was more sensitive to Tg and O2% for BC-RH because of high volatile
content. The higher Tg and O2% atmosphere caused more fierce
combustion corresponding to the shorter and more brightness
flame.
1552 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558

Fig. 9. The whole combustion processes of several typical cases of AC-RH and BC-RH pellets.

3.3. The ignition delay of pellets
The definition of the ignition delay (td) was the time from the
moment of the pellets reached its designated position to the first
appearance of combustion phenomenon as glowing surface or
flame.
Fig. 10 showed the ignition delay as a function of the oxygen
concentration at constant BRH. The td decreased with the
increasing O2%at constant gas temperatures in each coordinate. The
enrichment of O2 was conducive to pellets fully contacted with
oxidizer. Besides, it might also be due to the heat capacity of the
CO2/O2 atmosphere decreased with the increase of O2%, which
significantly helped to the heat transfer between blend pellets and
background gas and promoted ignition. . For the case of Tg ¼ 873 K
in each coordinate, elevating O2%, especially in the range of low and
medium O2%, had a significant impact on the td exhibiting the
curves of td decreased rapidly. Whereas, in the range of high O2%,
the td slightly decreased with the increase of O2%. This can also be
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558 1553

Fig. 10. The ignition delay time as a function of the oxygen concentration for AC-RH and BC-RH in different BRH.
1554 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558

Fig. 11. The ignition delay time of AC-RH and BC-RH pellets as a function of the oxygen concentration at different gas temperature.
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558
found in the case of 973 k, but not obviously. And the higher gas
temperature the more moderate the curves of td. The curves at
1073 K was even in almost flat or moderate decline. It proved that
high gas temperature declined the influence of oxygen concentra-
tion on the td. As shown in Fig. 7(d), particularly when BRH ¼ 30%,
the td at three gas temperatures hardly varied with increasing O2%,
suggesting high BRH declined the effect of O2% on the ignition delay
for AC-RH pellets.
Fig. 11 showed the ignition delay as a function of the oxygen
concentration at constant gas temperature. As shown in
Fig. 11(aec), the td of AC-RH and BC-RH pellets decreased with the
increasing O2 concentration, but the decrease trend was quite
different under different gas temperature and BRH. As shown in
Fig. 11(a) at Tg ¼ 873 K, the td of AC and A90R10 decreased with O2%
increasing, but that of A80R20 and A70R30 hardly changed with the
O2% even coincided with each other. The similar phenomenon also
found at Tg ¼ 973 K, shown in Fig. 11(b). However, at Tg ¼ 1073 K,
Fig. 11(c) showed the ignition delay of A90R10 dramatically
declined as elevating O2% from 21% to 40%, subsequently did not
change with O2% increasing from 40% to 70%. An interesting finding
was that the critical conditions of the trend of td from sharp decline
to keeping constant were identical with the critical conditions of
the transition of the ignition mechanism. Thus, this result indicated
that if the variation of condition led to the transition in ignition
mechanism of the pellets from heterogeneous ignition to homo-
geneous ignition, the ignition delay would decrease drastically, and
the ignition delay corresponding to homogeneous ignition was
similar with each other at same Tg.
As shown in Fig. 11(def) for BC-RH pellets, except for the het-
erogeneous ignition of BC and B90R10 pellets in condition of
Tg ¼ 873 K, O2% ¼ 21%, homogeneous ignition occurred in all other
experimental conditions, therefore the curves of the ignition delay
of different BRH pellets corresponding to homogeneous ignition
was almost similar with each other. But O2%and BRH still had a
certain effect on the ignition delay, this effect was gradually
reduced as the gas temperature increased. Elevating O2%, especially
in the range of low and medium O2%, had effect on the ignition
delay to some extent. And Elevating BRH, particularly from 0% to
10%, had a significant effect on the ignition delay which manifested
as the trend of the td for BC obviously differed with the other three
BRH's curves both at Tg ¼ 873 K, 973 K and 1073 K, suggesting that
blending more rice husk (10%) had less effect on ignition delay.
Fig. 12 showed a histogram displayed the effect of replacement
Fig. 12. The ignition delay time of AC-RH pellets under N2/O2and CO2/O2 atmosphere.
1555
of 21%N2/79%O2 in the air by 21%CO2/79%O2 on the ignition delay
time of AC and AC-RH pellets. It was well accepted the fact a certain
increase in the ignition delay time replacing N2 with CO2 at the
same O2%. The results were mainly due to the properties of CO2 had
higher heat capacity and lower diffusivity than that of N2 which can
explain as CO2 not only need absorbed more heat released from the
pellets or background gas but also suppressed sufficient contact
between pellets and oxygen, thereby inhibited the ignition and
prolonged the ignition delay [4,52]. When the Tg and BRH was high,
the td in the N2/O2 was close to the td in the CO2/O2. The reason of
this results was that the pellets was subjected to homogeneous
ignition mechanism. The vigorous devolatilization process from
pores in pellets may weaken the effect of difference properties
(heat capacity and lower diffusivity) between CO2 and N2 on td.
3.4. The ignition temperature of blend pellets
The definition of the ignition temperature was the internal
temperature of blend pellets at the moment of first visible com-
bustion. As shown in Fig. 13, the ignition temperature of AC and AC-
RH decreased with the increase of O2%, gas temperature and BRH.
Under experimental conditions, the thermal conductivity and
convection between pellets and surrounding hot gases controlled
by O2%and gas temperature in the ignition atmosphere can signif-
icantly affect the ignition temperature of pellets. And it was in
accordance with the research reported by Qiao et al. [53]. The in-
crease of BRH also reduced ignition temperature by increasing the
fuel reactivity and volatile content. N2 in the air was replaced by
CO2 caused the ignition temperature increasing, since CO2 pro-
moted pyrolysis of pellets prior to ignition, and additional reaction
between CO2 and char occurred to form combustible gases wrap-
ped around the pellets compared with under air condition [30,54].
As shown in Fig. 13(aec), when the BRH increased from 0% to
20%, the ignition temperature had a very significant reduction due
to the addition of biomass increased the fuel reactivity and the
devolatilization rate of blend pellets accordingly improved the
ignition behavior. But when BRH ¼ 30%, the curves of the ignition
temperature with BRH ¼ 30% was almost coincident with that of
BRH ¼ 20% in each coordinate, suggesting there were less effect of
blending more RH (BRH20%) on ignition temperature. For
BRH ¼ 0% and BRH ¼ 10%, when O2% ¼ 21%e50%, the ignition
temperature decreased as the O2%increased. When the O2%excee-
ded 50%, the ignition temperature decreased slowly. Gururajan
et al. [55] also reported the same trend, that was, the ignition
temperature decreased more and more slowly with the O2%
increasing. For BRH ¼ 20% and BRH ¼ 30%, almost no change in the
ignition temperature happened as increasing O2%. When BRH
exceeded 20%, the effect on ignition temperature had reached the
limit. To further improve the ignition behavior of the pellets can
only be achieved by the adjustment of the ignition atmosphere: gas
temperature, flow rate and O2%.
As shown in Fig. 13(deg), the ignition temperature decreased
with the increase of gas temperature. As shown in Fig. 13(d and e),
as the O2% increases, the ignition temperature decreased slightly at
Tg ¼ 873 K, 973 K and 1073 K. But, as shown in Fig. 13(f and g), there
was no change in the ignition temperature with O2%increased,
indicating, when BRH 20%, the ignition temperature was almost
independent of O2%and was dominated by gas temperature.
In the case of BC and BC-RH. Almost all cases with extremely
intense ignition reaction, there were the lower ignition tempera-
ture which was slightly above room temperature. And smooth
declining curves or flat curves of the ignition temperature as an
increase in O2%appeared.
In general, for AC and AC-RH. It can be found out the elevating
BRH from 0% to 20% had great influence on the ignition
1556 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558

Fig. 13. (aec) The ignition temperature of the AC and AC-RH as a function of the oxygen concentration for different gas temperature. (deg) The ignition temperature of the AC and
AC-RH as a function of the oxygen concentration for different BRH.
 C. Wang et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 93 (2020) 1544e1558
temperature. The ignition temperature decreased more and more
slowly with the O2%increasing. For BC and BC-RH, the ignition
temperature was hardly affected by the experimental variables. The
effect of O2%, Tg and BRH on the AC was more pronounced than BC.
4. Conclusions
In this study, the effect of Tg, O2%, and BRH on ignition behaviors
and combustion processes of the single blend pellets were inves-
tigated under air and oxy-fuel atmosphere,. The conclusions were
made to as following:
1. The ignition mechanism was analyzed. In the case of AC-RH, the
transitions from heterogeneous ignition to homogeneous igni-
tion always occurred when BRH varied from 0% to 20%, and the
critical conditions of this transition moved toward the lower
BRH and O2% as the Tg increased, Except for the low-intensity
atmosphere (Tg ¼ 873 K 79%CO2/21%O2), the ignition mecha-
nisms of BC-RH was homogeneous ignition.
2. There were three typical combustion processes, homogeneous
flaming combustion of volatile, heterogeneous flameless com-
bustion of char and joint homo-heterogeneous combustion
depended on Tg, O2%, and BRH.
3. The ignition delay decreased with the increasing O2%, Tg and
BRH, respectively. In the case of high Tg and BRH, O2% had little
effect on ignition delay. The critical conditions of ignition delay
from sharp decline to keeping constant were identical with the
critical conditions of the transition of the ignition mechanism.
4. O2% and Tg significantly affected the ignition temperature of
pellets by changing the thermal conductivity and convection
between pellets and surrounding hot gas flow. The BRH reduced
ignition temperature by increasing the fuel reactivity of the
whole blend pellets. For AC-RH The ignition temperature
reduced rapidly at BRH below 20%. When BRH more than 20% or
at high Tg, the ignition temperature was almost independent of
oxygen concentration. But for BC-RH, the ignition temperature
was hardly affected by O2%, Tg and BRH.
5. The replacement of N2 by CO2 at O2% ¼ 21% resulted in the
deterioration in ignition behavior manifested as an increase in
the ignition delay and the ignition temperature, mainly due to
the properties of CO2 had higher heat capacity and lower
diffusivity than that of N2.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation
of China (No. 51376171).
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