The influence of catalytic additives on kinetics of coal gasification process

Abstract

Catalytic coal gasification is a process that has the potential to become one of the efficient industrial technology of energy production. For this reason, the subject of this study was to analyze the kinetics of catalytic gasification of ‘Janina’ coal with steam. Isothermal measurements were performed at 800 °C, 900 °C, 950 °C and 1000 °C at a pressure of 1 MPa using cations of sodium, potassium and calcium as catalysts. During examination the thermovolumetric method was used. This method allows to determine the formation rates of a gaseous product such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide as well as their contribution to the resulting gas. Moreover, the influence of catalysts on the kinetics of CO and H2 formation at various temperatures was determined and the kinetics parameters were calculated with the use of isoconversional model, Random Pore Model and Grain Model. The obtained results confirmed the positive effect of catalysts on the coal gasification process. The catalytic measurements were characterized by higher reaction rate and shorter duration of the process, and the calculated values of the kinetic parameters were lower than for the gasification process without the addition of catalysts.