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Chemisorption, reaction and desorption studies of coal chars in steam, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Final report, January 1986-December 1989

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6213660

The use of a transient kinetics (TK) technique allowed a direct measurement of reactive surface area (RSA) for chars gasified in both CO{sub 2} and O{sub 2}, i.e., gasification rates normalized with respect to RSA were essentially constant over the entire conversion range. A temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) technique was also used to determine the amount of reactive surface intermediate formed on the chars during gasification in CO{sub 2} and O{sub 2}; the results were in good agreement with those obtained by TK. In addition, TPD allowed an important distinction to be made between the stable C-O complexes and reactive C(O) intermediates residing on the char surface during gasification in CO{sub 2} and O{sub 2}. The application of the two independent but complementary techniques provided a satisfactory quantitative understanding of char reactivity variations with conversion in CO{sub 2} and O{sub 2}. Both techniques possess the unique capability of separately determining the reaction rate constant (site reactivity or turnover frequency) and the number of active sites participating in the reaction (RSA). A comparison of turnover frequencies for different chars gasified in 1 atm CO{sub 2} suggested that char gasification may be a structure sensitive reaction. The concept of reactive surface area was also used to achieve a better quantitative understanding of catalyzed char reactivity variations with conversion in carbon dioxide.

Research Organization:
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (USA). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
OSTI ID:
6213660
Report Number(s):
PB-91-130252/XAB; CNN: GRI-5086-260-1419
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English