THE BEHAVIOR OF INERTINITE MACERALS UNDER PULVERIZED FUEL (PF) COMBUSTION CONDITIONS

The usefulness of the current system of classification of the inertini te group of macerals for understanding the pulverised fuel (pf) combus tion process is discussed and questioned. Results to date on the combu stibility of inertinite macerals are indecisive, especially as inertin ite is mostly regarded as a single entity. Simulated pf combustion exp eriments with a laser microreactor revealed that the inertinite macera ls yielded a wide diversity of char morphologies. With one-to-one corr elations between maceral and char, it was possible to determine which maceral was fusible or infusible (commonly called reactive and inert r espectively). The microreactor is being developed to measure the burni ng parameters of individual maceral particles. For example, the data w ill show which macerals are slow burning (and by how much) and whether fusibility has any relevance to the speed of char burning.