Co-combustion of rice husk with Thar lignite coal and their effects on gaseous emissions for environmental friendly and sustainable energy production

• Published in: Arabian journal of geosciences 2023-03, Vol.16 (3), Article 161
• Main Authors: Butt, Jawad Abdullah, Nergis, Yasmin, Hussain, Ahmad, Khan, Adnan, Sharif, Mughal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ash; Ashes; Biomass; Biomass burning; Blending; Clean energy; Coal; Combustion; Discharge; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth science; Earth Sciences; Emission analysis; Emissions; Emissions control; Energy; Energy resources; Flue gas; Gases; Lignite; Mixtures; Moisture; Moisture content; Moisture effects; Muffle furnaces; Nitrogen compounds; Nitrogen oxides; Original Paper; Renewable energy; Rice; Sulfur; Sulphur; Sustainability; Sustainable Development Goals; Sustainable energy
• ISSN: 1866-7511; 1866-7538
• DOI: 10.1007/s12517-023-11247-x

Co-combustion of coal and biomass is a sustainable and cost-operative choice for generating power. Biomass assets such as rice husk play a vital part in decreasing the concentration of discharge gases, while usage in the co-combustion approach. This research concentrated on the physicochemical and emission investigation of coal and rice husk blends for emission reduction. Thar coal comprises higher content of moisture and sulfur while lower in volatile matter and ash. However, rice husk is higher in volatile matter, and lower in moisture and sulfur with higher ash. The blends of coal with rice husk in weight fractions 90:10 (CRh-1), 80:20 (CRh-2), and 70:30 (CRh-3) were also characterized. The study reveals that CRh-1 contains 1.39%, CRh-2 contains 1.17%, and CRh-3 contained 0.99% elemental sulfur respectively after the blend. Flue gases analysis from muffle furnace stack showed that coal-rice husk blends 70:30% (CRh-3) were found to be feasible from the energy production point of opinion. Overall, NOx and SOx discharges were found to decline from 89 ppm (CRh-1) to 34 ppm (CRh-3) and 828 ppm (CRh-1) to 169 ppm (CRh-3) respectively by increasing the blending fraction from 10 to 30%. The study has concluded that rice husk blending would be a beneficial choice to reduce SOx and NOx discharges in the combustion of Thar coal for efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly combustion for energy production and support to fulfill the requirement of UN Environment SDG 7 clean energy goal.