Combustion characteristics of coal and refuse from passenger trains

Refuse from passenger trains is becoming a significant issue with the development of the Chinese railway. Co-firing is regarded as a promising thermal technology, both environmentally and economically, in reducing the quantity of refuse. The co-firing property of passenger train refuse with coal, however, may differ due to the differences in the composition of the refuse. In the present study, combustion properties of refuse from passenger train samples and the mixture of refuse with coal were studied in a tube furnace. Thermo analysis methods, such as thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) analyses were employed to evaluate combustion performance. We found that the mixture of passenger train refuse and coal at a ratio of 1:1 has a lower ignition and burnout temperature than the coal-only sample. Moreover, refuse from railway passenger trains has more reactive combustion properties than the coal-only sample, and the addition of railway passenger train refuse to coal can promote the reactivity of coal.