Physicochemical evolution during rice straw and coal co-pyrolysis and its effect on co-gasification reactivity

•Physicochemical evolution in coal-biomass co-pyrolysis was quantitatively measured.•Order degree of co-pyrolyzed chars was distinctly promoted at high coal proportion.•Co-pyrolysis obviously enhanced active K transformation at high coal proportion.•Co-pyrolysis impact on co-gasification was related with physicochemical evolution.

Physicochemical evolution (i.e. pore structure variation, carbon structure change and active AAEM transformation) during rice straw (RS) and Shenfu bituminous coal (SF) co-pyrolysis was quantitatively determined in this work. Moreover, the corresponding char gasification was conducted using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and relative reactivity was proposed to quantify the co-pyrolysis impact on co-gasification reactivity. The results showed that the development of pore structure in co-pyrolyzed chars was first inhibited and then enhanced with the decrease of SF proportion. The promotion effect of co-pyrolysis on order degree of co-pyrolyzed chars gradually weakened with increasing RS proportion. Co-pyrolysis mainly enhanced active K transformation in co-pyrolyzed chars and the promotion effect was alleviated with increasing RS proportion. The inhibition effect of co-pyrolysis on co-gasification reactivity weakened with increasing RS proportion and gasification temperature, which was mainly attributed to the combination of carbon structure evolution and active AAEM transformation in co-pyrolysis.