Exploratory Investigation of Coal in Nonequilibrium Plasma

Coal is an abundant natural resource and there is motivation to find new uses for it that do not intrinsically involve combustion. One approach is to explore new ways of processing coal, and in this work, we focus on the transformation of coal in a nonequilibrium plasma generated from an equimolar mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen. The outcome of the nonequilibrium plasma reaction is fundamentally different than a thermal control reaction carried out using the same gas composition, pressure, and temperature range. The nonequilibrium plasma produces a gas mixture that is enriched in acetylene and its derivatives. Furthermore, when compared to the thermal control experiment, the solid char byproduct of the nonequilibrium plasma has a very reactive surface and is spontaneously combustible at ambient temperature. Experiments performed to characterize the reaction kinetics of coal in the plasma suggest that the mechanism proceeds through a sequential process by which the coal particle temperature rises to a point where devolatilization can occur, the devolatilization reaction happens, followed by parallel reactions of released organic vapors in the plasma phase and surface activation. The reaction rate appears to be limited by the time it takes for the coal particle temperature to rise, consistent with previous results reported for reactions of coal in thermal plasma.