Usefulness of insights into the kinetic compensation effects in the kinetic analysis of the coal gasification process

Abstract

In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the kinetic compensation effects and their usefulness in the kinetic analysis of a lab-based gasification study. The gasification experiment was carried out in two different gasifying environments, that is, 0.4%O₂ + 8%H₂O-Ar and 8%H₂O-Ar, for two different particle sizes of Loy Yang brown coal. Analysis of kinetic values with the change in particle size and gasifying environment was investigated. This provides information on the path of product gas formation and how the overall controlling factor affects the path of char gasification, including the rate-limiting step. Furthermore, the results indicate that having multiple sets of kinetic parameters caused by the inclusion of the change in char properties into kinetics during solid–gas heterogeneous reactions opens up the scope for wider applications in chemical reaction engineering. This includes the design of a reactor with a proper kinetic model, optimization of feedstock, and process parameters with the identification of pathways for product gas formation, which ultimately plays a key role in scaling up technology from bench-scale to plant-scale. In contrast, the study of kinetics with having a single set of kinetic data based on the initial change in char properties limits its applications.