Abstract: Coal is a very complex system. If the thermal decomposition of the coal is assumed to consist of a large number of various chemical bonds, difference in the strengths of chemical bonds throughout the coal will cause marked differences in the temperatures at which the various bonds rupture. So the activation energy of coal can be viewed as a continuous distribution.
This paper is concerned with the pyrolysis experiments of lean coal and fat coal from Feng-Feng, Heipei province, China.According to the pyrolysis results, the models of activation energies can be obtained for both coals and the most probable activation energies areL E_(lean)=268 kJ mol~(-1), E_(fat)=238 kJ mol~(-1).