Catalytic gasification of a single coal char particle: An experimental and simulation study

The catalytic coal gasification technology has been widely researched and developed under the background of “Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals”. Currently, most of catalytic gasification experiments on coal char particles are analyzed by thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). However, the gasification agent will be subject to diffusion resistance during the reaction because of the sample stacking, making the inherent reaction kinetics unclear. In this study, we investigated the catalytic gasification behavior of single-particle coal char using high temperature stage microscope (HTSM). With the diffusion resistance ruled out, the reaction conditions when using a HTSM are more similar to those inside a real industrial gasifier. Numerical models of the gasification reaction of single-particle coal char were further developed using the kinetic parameters obtained under HTSM. Three models were investigated, including regular spherical structured, irregular spherical structured and porous spherical structured models, representing different morphologies of coal char particles in the gasifier. The gasification characteristics of coal char particles under different K₂CO₃ catalyst loadings and gasification temperatures were also studied. Compared with the activation energies data of coal char particles without catalyst, the activation energies of coal char particles loaded with 2.2 %, 4.4 %, 6.6 %, and 10.0 % catalysts were reduced by 110 kJ/mol, 116 kJ/mol, 121 kJ/mol, and 126 kJ/mol, respectively. The reaction surface area affects the temperature distribution. The temperature near the irregular spherical particle is about 20 K higher than the temperature near the regular spherical particle.