Abstract

BARRERA ZAPATA, Rolando; PEREZ BAYER, Juan F  and  SALAZAR JIMENEZ, Carlos. Colombian coals: classification and thermochemical characterization for energy applications. Rev. ion [online]. 2014, vol.27, n.2, pp.43-54. ISSN 0120-100X.

Colombian coal reserves/production ratio is around 91 years. The challenge is to exploit the availability of coal in Colombia by means of higher efficiency technologies, it is necessary to characterize the different coals properly. In this work ten Colombian samples of coal with different rank and quality were analyzed. The samples are from different regions around the country. Each sample was characterized according to proximate and ultimate analysis, as well as thermogravimetric analysis and heating value. For each coal sample was assessed its rank or quality according to different standardized methods, i.e., ASTM standard, Van Kleveler diagram, Parr method and ISO 11760-2005 standard. Moreover, the reactivity of each sample was determined by means of thermogravimetric and its differential thermal analyses. It was found that the coals with the higher rank are not necessarily the more reactive fuels for energy use. This is due to the coals, with higher fixed carbon, release the volatile matter slowly; therefore, its use capacity and its thermochemical transformation decreases.

Keywords : colombian coals; proximate and ultimate analysis; reactivity; coal Rank; energy use.

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