Stabilization Characteristics of Upgraded Coal using Palm Acid Oil

These days, coal is one of the most important energy resources used for transportation, industry, and electricity. There are two types of coal: high-rank and low-rank. Low-rank coal has a low calorific value and contains large amounts of useless moisture. The quality of low-rank coal can be increased by simple drying technology and it needs to be stabilized by hydrocarbons (e.g. palm acid oil, PAO) to prevent spontaneous combustion and moisture re-adsorption. Spontaneous combustion becomes a major problem during coal mining, storage, and transportation. It can involve the loss of life, property, and economic value; reduce the quality of the coal; and increase greenhouse gas emissions. Besides spontaneous combustion, moisture re-adsorption also leads to a decrease in quality of the coal due to its lower heating value. In this work, PAO was used for additive to stabilize the upgraded coal. The objectives of the experiments were to determine the stabilization characteristic of coal by analyzing the behavior of upgraded coal by drying and PAO addition regarding crossing-point temperature of coal, the moisture behavior of briquette coal, and thermal decomposition behavior of coal.