Combustion behaviors of pulverized coal particles suspended in a laminar upwind flow. A single pulsed YAG laser was used to heat coal particles at heating rates of l05-106 K/s. The rate constant of devolatilization of the bituminous coal was obtained by observing the light emission from the volatile matter combustion flame in a temperature range between l000 and 1200 K. The light intensity profiles of coal particles had two peaks and that of activated carbon showed only one peak. This indicated that two types of reaction proceeded in the devolatilization process of coal particles. The rate constant of devolatilization determined in this study agreed with the higher value among the published values determined using furnaces designed to yield heating rates of lO4-1O5 K/s.
