**Jihui Liu 1, Yaqiang Yuan 1, Junhong Zhang 1, Zhijun He 1,\* and Yaowei Yu 2,\***


Received: 23 February 2020; Accepted: 11 April 2020; Published: 17 April 2020

**Abstract:** In order to systematically elucidate the combustion performance of fuel during sintering, this paper explores the influence of three factors, namely coal substitution for coke, quasi-particle structure and the coupling effect with reduction and oxidation of iron oxide, on fuel combustion characteristics, and carries out the kinetic calculation of monomer blended fuel (MBF) and quasi-granular fuel (QPF). The results show that replacing coke powder with anthracite can accelerate the whole combustion process. MBF and QPF are more consistent with the combustion law of the double-parallel random pore model. Although the quasi-particle structure increases the apparent activation energy of fuel combustion, it can also produce a heat storage effect on fuel particles, improve their combustion performance, and reduce the adverse effect of diffusion on the reaction process. In the early stage of reaction, the coupling between combustion of volatiles and reduction of iron oxide is obvious. The oxidation of iron oxide will occur again when the combustion reaction of fuel is weakened.

**Keywords:** quasi-particle structure; monomer blended fuel; quasi-particle fuel; apparent activation energy; coupling effect
