Lina Kieush and Andrii Koveria are from the National TU “Dnipro Poly-technik” the National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine. They visited BI-OENERGY 2020+ GmbH in Austria in July 2019.
The purpose of the visit was to conduct thermo-gravimetric analysis to determine the thermal be-haviour and kinetics parameters of two biomass types (sunflower husks and walnut shells), as well as their blends with coal. These analyses are im-portant for explaining the interaction of biomass with metallurgical coal within blends and are the continuation of the pyrolysis process studies car-ried out via the fixed-bed lab-scale reactor. With this in mind, the thermal behaviour and kinetic pa-rameters for blends with charcoal and hard coal were studied via TGA (thermal analyser NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter). Analysis of the data was per-formed using the software Proteus Analysis.
The preliminary analysis of the results showed the non-additive behaviour of the TG and DTG mass loss curves for biomass mixtures, as well as blends with charcoal and hard coal. The experimental results of thermogravimetric analysis of mix-tures with different charcoals and hard coal showed an almost identical character, which may be important for understanding the processes of obtaining fuel and reducing agents for metallurgy, as well as preliminary materials preparation for producing metallurgical fuel and reducing
agents. The study’s results will be used to recommend the biomass ap-plication in metallurgical industry as a substance to substitute conventional fuels and reducing agents and as a basis for joint scientific publications. We learned new skills and knowledge in the field of thermogravimetric analysis and data analysis.
We would like to express our grati-tude to BRISK2, as it allowed us to broaden our skills through the unique research equipment. We find the project an excellent opportunity for international collabo-ration and knowledge exchange. The required studies have been conducted with the kind assis-tance of caring and friendly colleagues from BIO-ENERGY 2020+ GmbH (Graz, Austria).
