Characterization of Coal Ash Emissivity in High-Temperature Atmospheres

This paper presents a method for determining coal ash emissivity in high temperature atmospheres. We applied a tube-dropping mechanism to suppress reflection from the sample, and tried other new approaches for measurements at high temperatures. One approach was a shielding time reduction using tube motorization, which reduces measurement errors to a negligible level. Another approach was determining emissivity by fitting a calculation curve to transient experimental data. In these calculations, emissivity was an adjustable parameter. An ash sample was heated in an electric furnace in the range from 500 to 1300°C and the radiation intensity from the sample was measured with a digital pyrometer. Each measurement was carried out within 0.3 seconds, including the time required for shielding the sample (0.1 seconds). Once the tube had been dropped into the furnace, radiation intensities from the sample began decreasing. Emissivity characteristics were compared between Powder River Basin (PRB) coal ash and bituminous coal ash. It was found that coal-ash emissivity depends on coal types and changes significantly as a function of ash surface temperature.