Co-combustion performance of oil palm biomass with coal: thermodynamics and kinetics analyses

This paper comprehensively assesses oil palm biomass and coal blends, focusing on evaluating thermodynamic and kinetics parameters. The experimental approach employs thermogravimetric differential thermal analysis (TG–DTA) with varying heating rates of 5, 10, 15, and 20 K min−1. Laboratory tests are conducted on six blended samples of different coal and oil palm biomass ratios. The evaluation encompasses key combustion parameters, including ignition index (Di), burnout index (Db), combustion performance index (S), reactivity (R), flammability index (C), and index of intensity (Hf). Additionally, thermodynamic parameters such as a change in enthalpy (ΔH), change in Gibbs free energy (ΔG), and change in entropy (ΔS) are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the optimal co-combustion material is a blend of 76