THE KINETICS OF COMBUSTION OF OIL COKE PARTICLES

A vertical tube furnace was used to obtain kinetics data for the reaction of sized fractions of residual fuel oil coke particles with oxygen. Temperatures were in the range 1287 to 1795K and oxygen concentrations were between 0.29 and 4.95%, and were chosen to simulate large boiler plant conditions. The chemical and physical characteristics of the material were determined. Two mathematical models were used to analyse the data separately. The first calculated apparent rate parameters (activation energy, pre-exponential factor and order of reaction) for the reaction which was assumed to occur solely on the external surface of the particles. The second model allowed for the effects of pore diffusion and “true” or intrinsic parameters were obtained; mass loss was expressed on the basis of the total surface area of the particles. In both cases the interdependence of the kinetic parameters was determined by experiment and by the novel use of a numerical analysis technique. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.