Determination of co-combustion properties and thermal kinetics of poultry litter/coal blends using thermogravimetry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combustion properties and thermal kinetics of poultry litter. Co-combustion of poultry litter with low quality Turkish lignite was also studied. The experiments were performed in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) under non-isothermal conditions. The Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method was used to determine activation energy. Activation energy of the samples was between 104.4 kJ/mol and 130.1 kJ/mol. Different thermal decomposition properties were detected for poultry litter/coal blends than for coal. The thermal properties of the prepared blends showed correlation with the percentage of the poultry litter in the samples. Furthermore, average activation energies of the blends decreased with increasing wt% of coal; the lowest activation energy was obtained with 70 wt% litter, the lowest litter wt% in the blend. A synergistic effect was also observed between poultry litter and coal samples during their co-combustion.