In this study, the combustion mechanism of Korean anthracite coal has been studied. The combustion is a typical noncatalytic heterogeneous reaction of the unreacted-core shrinking nature. The geometry of the reacting substance employed was an annulus cylinder which could simulate, "Gugong-tan", multi-hole coal briquette, used for a residential fuel in Korea.
The theoretical solutions for the mass and heat balance equations derived from the unreacted-core shrinking model were obtained under two different assumptions, the reaction equilibrium and the first order reaction at the reacting surface.
The experimental results, obtained with pelletized 30∼60 mesh anthracite were compared with the theoretical solutions. For the temperature higher than 700 ℃, the results agreed well with the equilibrium assumption, while the results were better fitted to the first order reaction for the temperature lower than 600 ℃.