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Evaluation of CO2 gasification kinetics for low-rank Indian coals and biomass fuels

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Abstract

Gasification of solid fuels such as coals, lignite and biomasses has been studied using isothermal and non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TG) with CO2 as gasifying agent. Non-isothermal TG of three Indian coals (two bituminous and one sub-bituminous coal), one lignite and two biomass fuels (Casuarina and empty fruit bunches) at a constant heating rate of 20 °C min−1 in the temperature range from 25 to 1200 °C showed a clear separation of DTG peaks associated with pyrolysis and CO2 gasification. Based on these studies, isothermal TG experiments were conducted in the temperature range from 900 to 1100 °C for coals and from 800 to 1000 °C for biomass fuels. These results show that the CO2 gasification rate follows coal rank for the three coals and the lignite. The two biomasses have significantly higher reactivities than the three coals. The higher reactivity of one coal is attributed to the presence of calcium-containing minerals in its inorganic matter. The kinetic parameters for each fuel were extracted from the isothermal TG results using the volumetric reaction model for the coals and a zeroth-order model for biomass fuels. Biomass and lignite are found to have a much higher reactivity index and much lower conversion time than the three coals under identical conditions.

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Abbreviations

w 0 :

Initial mass of the sample

w t :

Instantaneous mass of the sample

w f :

Final mass of the sample

x :

Fractional conversion of solid

r :

Reactivity or rate of reaction

W :

Mass of the sample

R s :

Reactivity index

t :

Instantaneous time during conversion

τ 0.5 :

Time required to reach 50 % conversion

k :

Arrhenius rate constant

E :

Activation energy

A :

Pre-exponential factor

k VM :

Rate constant from volumetric model

k GM :

Rate constant from grain model

k RPM :

Rate constant from random pore model

Ψ :

Structure parameter

x max :

Conversion at maximum reactivity

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Acknowledgements

The first author (VSN) is supported by the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) which is funded by a grant from Department of Science and Technology (DST). The authors would like to thank NCCRD and the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, for providing analytical facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD), IIT Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    V. Satyam Naidu, Preeti Aghalayam & Sreenivas Jayanti

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  1. V. Satyam Naidu
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  2. Preeti Aghalayam
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  3. Sreenivas Jayanti
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Correspondence to Sreenivas Jayanti.

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Naidu, V.S., Aghalayam, P. & Jayanti, S. Evaluation of CO2 gasification kinetics for low-rank Indian coals and biomass fuels. J Therm Anal Calorim 123, 467–478 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-4930-4

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