Catalytic effect of iron in hydrogasification of coal

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6140550

Padrick, T D; Dees, D D; Massis, T M

Hydrogasification of coal is a technique to produce synthetic natural gas (SNG), which offers the advantage of methane production in a single process step. A fundamental limitation of hydrogasification is the low reactivity of hydrogen compared to steam or oxygen, towards coal chars. Utilization of a low-cost catalyst which would greatly enhance the reactivity of hydrogen towards coal char would significantly impact the SNG program. While investigating mineral matter effects in coal gasification, we observed that finely divided hematite enhances the production of methane, by a factor of fifteen, during char gasification at one atmosphere of hydrogen. Gasification rates are measured by heating the samples in a thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) system to a fixed temperature and then monitoring the rate of weight loss versus time. Product gas analysis indicates that during char gasification with hematite present, greater than 85 mole % of the gas is methane. The catalytic form of the hematite has been identified as reduced iron. The effect of the reduced iron as a catalyst is strongly dependent on particle size. The catalytic activity is also dependent on precursor species with the following order observed: Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ > Fe/sub 3/O/sub 4/ > FeS/sub 2/ > Fe.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6140550
• Report Number(s): SAND-81-0715C; CONF-811014-2; ON: DE81023928
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010404* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Gasification
ALKANES
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHARS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL GASIFICATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
GASIFICATION
GRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS
HEMATITE
HIGH BTU GAS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGENATION
IRON
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON ORES
IRON OXIDES
IRON SULFIDES
METALS
METHANE
MINERALS
ORES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLE SIZE
PYRITE
PYRITES
PYROLYSIS PRODUCTS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SIZE
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR ORES
THERMAL ANALYSIS
THERMAL GRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS