Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

In-situ rapid pyrolysis and steam gasification of lignite coals: a mechanistic study

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6186604

Coal pyrolysis was performed under steam pressure conditions ranging from 2.4 kPa to 410 kPa. The yields of CO, CO/sub 2/ and CH/sub 4/ were monitored following rapid injection of coal into a heated flow reactor. Under atmospheric pressure conditions (in 2.4 kPa steam) pyrolysis and gasification did not occur concurrently, as steam gasification followed pyrolysis. Under high pressure conditions-reactor (2.2 MPa-4.84 MPa) and steam (184 kPa-410 kPa)-pyrolysis and gasification were concurrent and a significant increase in the yield of CO, CO/sub 2/ and CH/sub 4/ was observed; CH/sub 4/, however was not detected during the coal-char gasification stage. During high pressure pyrolysis, while a gradual increase in steam pressure caused a progressively higher yield of CH/sub 4/, a gradual increase in N/sub 2/ pressure led to lower CH/sub 4/ yields. The particle temperature was established by a heat transfer model which relied on the temperature measurement of the gas immediately adjacent to the sample while being heated. A rate constant for coal pyrolysis was determined utilizing the predicted particle temperature (k = 10/sup 5/ exp(/minus/83.6(kJmol/sup /minus/1/)/RT)(s/sup /minus/1/)). The gasification rate of the situ formed coal-chars was determined by monitoring the evolution of CO and CO/sub 2/. An unexpected increase in reactivity was observed at increasing carbon conversion of the K-loaded lignite chars, reaching a maximum at a carbon burn-off of 40% to 50%. Concurrent with this reactivity maximum, a decrease in the CO/CO/sub 2/ product ratio by nearly one order of magnitude was observed between the beginning and end of the reaction.

Research Organization:
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park (USA)
OSTI ID:
6186604
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English