Co-combustion of different sewage sludge and coal: a non-isothermal thermogravimetric kinetic analysis.

The kinetics of the combustion of coal, two different sewage sludge and their blends (containing different dried weight percentages of sewage sludge) was studied by simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis. Once the weight percentage of sludge in the blend was 10%, the effects on the combustion of coal were hardly noticeable in terms of weight loss. The Arrhenius activation energy corresponding to the co-combustion of the blends was evaluated by non-isothermal kinetic analysis. This showed that, though differences between coal and sewage sludge, the combustion of their blends kept kinetically alike to that of the coal. This work illustrates how thermogravimetric analysis may be used as an easy rapid tool to asses, not only mass loss, but also kinetics of the co-combustion of sewage sludge and coal blends.