An Investigation into the Thermal Decomposition of Nigerian Coal

Five coal samples from Nigeria were characterized by thermogravimetry (TG) analysis. Thermal decomposition in air (combustion) and inert (pyrolysis) environment at temperature up to 1000 ° C classified the coals as belonging to the low-rank class, within the Lignite and sub-bituminous group. The coals are not cokable alone but could serve as suitable blends with coking coal of higher ranks. The apparent activation energies of the combustion and pyrolysis processes ranged from 68.5 to 90.0 kJ mol-1 and 34.1 to 57.2 kJ mol-1, respectively.