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The role of pore structure on char reactivity. Quarterly progress report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10133364· OSTI ID:10133364
The Wyoming lignite raw coal was size classified to 38--45 {mu}m, first by air-classification to remove the fine panicles, and then by sieving with a standard Ro-tap sieving machine. The size-classified Wyoming lignite was then pyrolyzed in a laboratory-scale laminar flow furnace at 1650K, 100% N{sub 2}. About one gram of pyrolyzed char was collected with Millipore membrane filters (teflon/polyethylene). The char sample thus collected was carefully poured into an cylindrical mold filled with epoxy resin and thoroughly mixed with epoxy resin. In order to remove the air bubbles trapped during mixing in the mixture, the sample-filled mold was placed in a dessicator connected to a vacuum pump. By periodically evacuating the dessicator, trapped air bubbles could be removed. The mold with the char sample and epoxy resin was placed in a cool area for 24 hours until it hardened. One end of the hardened cylindrical plug was carefully polished with alumina paste so that char particles embedded could also be cross-sectioned. The polished end of the sample plug thus prepared was observed under a Wetzlar optical microscope with a built-in camera. Pictures of fifty cross-sections of char particles were taken. The magnification was in the range of {times} l00 and {times} 650. Figure 1 shows cross-sections of char particles shown in black and white images. (The carbonaceous matrix is shown in black). Characterization of the pore structure of the char was carried out by digital image processing on cross-sections of the char particles. Pictures of cross-sections were scanned in, digitized in 600 {times} 5l2-pixel, 256-grayscale images using an Apple Scanner. Grayscale images were first converted to binary black-and-white images by setting a grayscale threshold that gives the best images of pores and char. Editing, i.e., sharpening and noise reduction, was performed to the binary images using Image v 1.17, a public domain program.
Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
FG22-91PC91294
OSTI ID:
10133364
Report Number(s):
DOE/PC/91294--T3; ON: DE93009672
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English