Study of Mixed Combustion Behavior of Pulverized Municipal Solid Waste and Anthracite Coal

The substitution of municipal solid waste (MSW) for pulverized coal reduces the dependence on fossil fuels, lowers production costs in energy-intensive industries, and helps decrease carbon emissions. The primary method of utilizing MSW as fuel is mixed combustion with pulverized coal. This paper employs a thermogravimetric analysis to study the combustion characteristics and perform a kinetic analysis of a mixture of MSW and pulverized anthracite coal. The simulated MSW is composed of three representative components: polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), and straw (a typical biomass). The experimental results indicate that the combustion process of MSW is more complex than that of anthracite. The initial ignition temperature of MSW is 334 °C, whereas that of anthracite is 551 °C. As the proportion of MSW increases, the weight loss stages in the combustion curve of the mixture become more numerous, and the ignition temperature gradually decreases. Moreover, the combustion performance of the MSW–anthracite mixture improves, with the combustibility index Rm rising from 0.131 to 0.235. The combustion process of MSW–anthracite mixtures was analyzed using the random pore model (RPM), the unreacted core model (URCM), and the volumetric model (VM). Among these, the VM was found to be the most suitable kinetic model for the combustion process. The activation energies for the combustion processes of anthracite, 20% MSW-80% anthracite, 40% MSW-60% anthracite, 60% MSW-40% anthracite, 80% MSW-20% anthracite, and MSW were calculated to be 152.05 kJ/mol, 80.51 kJ/mol, 51.05 kJ/mol, 40.87 kJ/mol, 33.41 kJ/mol, and 32.17 kJ/mol, respectively. The obtained results indicate that MSW is a high-performance fuel with significant application potential.