Lang Liu*ab,
Yan Cao*b,
Qingcai Liuc and
Jian Yangc
aGuizhou Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering Institute, Guiyang, Guizhou 550003, China. E-mail: l.liu.git@qq.com
bInstitute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology, Chemistry Department, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA. E-mail: yan.cao@wku.edu
cCollege of Material Science & Engineering, Chongqing University, Shapingba, Chongqing 400044, China
First published on 12th January 2017
This study is to explicate the reaction mechanisms and kinetics of high-pressure char CO2 gasification via a joint experimental and model simulation approach. The high-pressure char–CO2 gasification reactions were studied experimentally using a high pressure thermo-gravimetric analyzer (HP-TGA). The results showed that the char CO2 gasification rate experienced an initially slow increase until the carbon conversion reached 0.6 (Zone I), when a rapid increase in the carbon conversion increased to 0.9 (Zone II). Further gasification reaction, corresponding to a carbon conversion efficiency above 0.9 (Zone III), finally, presented a sharp decrease in kinetics. For more accurate interpretation of the experimental char–CO2-gasification kinetics and mechanisms, we found a proven kinetic model could be derived based on the random pore model and mixed model, which specifically predicate the studied gasification reaction and its critical kinetics parameters of the Zone I and II, respectively. The developed kinetics model, assembling major parameters (including char structures, pressure order, reaction order, activation energy and pre-exponential factor) was found to be in good agreement with the experimental results, covering wide realistic gasification operation conditions. This study revealed an optimal carbon conversion range with rational gasification kinetics, which can be estimated based on an accurate kinetics model.
The general approach to improve the kinetics of the char gasification is the high temperature and pressurized operations.7 Many factors have been proved to affect kinetics of coal char gasification, including char ranks, particle sizes, temperatures, the partial pressures of the reactant gases and the total system pressure, as well as gasification agents (likely O2, H2O and/or CO2).8–12 The water is the mostly used gasification agent, which is more reactive than CO2. However, water is also resource-limited and energy-intensive than CO2. The exploration to use CO2 as gasification agent may contribute to reduce the dependence of water usage in the coal gasification process, and thus is significant in the industry gasification application. Recently, experimentally the CO2 gasification mechanisms have been investigated,13–20 and their regular empirical reaction models have been addressed, such as the volume model,21 the hybrid model22 and the random pore model.19,23–26 Among of these kinetic models, the random pore model seemed the most practical one, addressing the growth and coalescence of the char structure during the char gasification process. However, it is feasible to describe the maximum reaction rate at low conversion levels, but difficult to explain the intrinsic reaction rate throughout the char gasification. For example, Roberts et al.13,16,27,28 studied factors such as temperature, pressure, the gasification agent and CO inhibition, on the intrinsic reaction rate of the char gasification. They assumed the intrinsic reaction rate can be found and studied when the char carbon conversion was around 0.1. The intrinsic reaction rate of the gasification is one when a chemical-reaction controlling condition is applied. Models that are used to predict high temperature char gasification behavior usually have a chemical reaction component that accounts for the variation in intrinsic reaction rate with operating temperature and pressure. This component is usually combined with the analysis of the effects of the surface chemical reaction rate and pore diffusion limitations to arrive at an overall gasification rate over a wide range of temperatures.
In our previous paper,29 the high-pressure char–CO2 gasification reactions were studied experimentally using a high pressure thermo-gravimetric analyzer (HP-TGA). The results showed that the gasification rate initially experienced a slow increase, and followed by a rapid increase, and finally a decrease corresponding to increasing the carbon conversion efficiency. Also, the structural and crystalline features of gasified chars at different conversions efficiencies are well characterized using BET, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and SEM. It was found that the char structure changes of interest were generally accepted as having major impacts on kinetics of char gasification, especially for the slow CO2 gasification process. Authors, in this manuscript, attempted to demonstrate this type of interaction between char kinetics and physical and chemical properties of char. But, the complete kinetics models regarding the kinetics of the selected coal have not been presented in our previous paper.
This paper was focused on the chemical reaction component of such models, and how it can be practically applied while still accurately describing the intrinsic reactivity behavior of chars throughout the gasification process over a wide range of operating temperature and pressure.
The primary objective of this paper was to develop a practical combined model to present the intrinsic reaction kinetics of the char gasification using CO2 as the gasification agent under the elevated temperatures and pressures by. Experiments have been carried out in a pressurized thermo-gravimetric analyzer. The temperature range was controlled isothermally between 950 to 1150 °C, and pressure between up to 3.0 MPa.
Proximate analysis | Ultimate analysis (dry basis) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Moisture | Fixed carbon | Volatiles | Ash | C | H | N | O | S | |
Coal | 5.06 | 49.46 | 35.02 | 10.46 | 65.52 | 4.52 | 1.43 | 13.94 | 3.57 |
According to the data from the thermo-gravimetric analyzer, the carbon conversion efficiency (x(t)) of char defined as the ratio of the gasified char at any time t to the initial char can be calculated as
(1) |
The intrinsic reaction rates (ρ) were calculated as
(2) |
C + CO2 ↔ C(O) + CO, k1, k2 | (3) |
C(O) → CO, k3 | (4) |
The intrinsic reaction rates (ρ) were described by the Langmuir–Hinshelwood rate equation:
(5) |
In the experiments, PCO2 ≫ PCO and the influence of CO on the reaction is little. So the partial pressure of CO can be ignored in our experiment, and the eqn (5) was simplified to become
(6) |
So, the value for k1/k3 (the intercept divided by the gradient) can be got by charting 1/ρ versus 1/PCO2.
The overall reaction rate is24
(7) |
(8) |
ψ is the structural parameter characteristic of the initial char structure and defined as
(9) |
The structural parameter (ψ) has been determined via BET results and image analysis,24,36 and via experimental reaction rate results. However, as for the non-uniform pore size distribution char, BET measurements and image analysis were not accurate enough because of the approximations required to describe the non-uniformity of the pore sizes as well as the accuracy of the pore size estimates within the micro-pore range.19 Lu et al.37 estimated this parameter from the maximum of experimental reaction rate curves obtained from conversion results. These estimates, however, depend on the accuracy of the numerical estimation of the maxima are limited to a very narrow carbon conversion range. This problem was overcome by regression with the unknown structural parameter based on experimental results by other authors.19
In this paper, this parameter was estimated by the method as follow.
Rearrangement of the equation provides the following
(10) |
If we defined x′ = ln(1 − x), while
(11) |
We can get
ρ2 = ks2 − ks2ψx′ | (12) |
With regression analysis, ψ can be calculated by using the linear regression model between ρ2 and ks2. This is likely one of the reasons for ensuring that conversion levels are constant when undertaking investigations of char gasification intrinsic reaction kinetics, in particular when the determination of specific and intrinsic rate constants is required.16 Roberts et al.13,16,27 investigated the intrinsic reaction rates reasonably using the specific reaction rates when the carbon conversion efficiency was 0.1. In this study, the carbon conversion efficiency below 0.1 was the initial intrinsic-rate-controlling stage, and thus was applied to analyze the initial intrinsic kinetics of the selected char.
ρ = kIIPAn(1 − x)m−1 | (13) |
While,
(14) |
If we defined
(15) |
We can get
lnρ = lnkr + (m − 1)ln(1 − x) | (16) |
The effect of temperature on the char gasification was pretty straightforward, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The elevation of gasification temperatures generally resulted in the increase of the carbon conversion efficiency under constant pressures and CO2 concentrations throughout the char gasification process. As shown in Fig. 1(c), the effect of pressure on char gasification was similar to that of temperature, the increase of the gasification pressures resulted in the increase of the carbon conversion efficiency throughout the complete char conversion, which was consistent to published studies.19,38
Fig. 2 shows the gasification rate versus the carbon conversion efficiency using 100% CO2 as gasification agent at selected operating conditions. It was observed that the gasification rate initially experienced a slow increase (Zone I), and followed by a rapid increase (Zone II), and finally a decrease (Zone III) corresponding to increasing the carbon conversion efficiency. The char CO2 gasification rates differed at these three stages should be associated with major rate controlling factors individually or jointly, such as rates of pore diffusions for reactants and gas products, the surface chemical adsorption, and intrinsic reaction. It was well known that the char structural parameters, such as specific surface area and atomic structure, subject to significant changes during the carbon conversion of the gasified char under a wide gasification conditions.16,39–41 Our previous studies29 presented, that changes of both the surface area and pore volume of the gasified char played major roles on the gasification reaction rate during the char–CO2 gasification. In the initial stage of the char gasification, the surface of char was revealed coarse with many small embossed parts, identified partially as small surface bulge and partially the initial underdeveloped pores structures. The initial pore opening on the char surface, surly resulted in that more pores underneath char surface were accessible by the gasification agent to let the process of pore openings move on. The outcomes lead more char participation in gasification process and the gasification rates speed-up until the carbon conversion efficiency reaching to around 0.9. The pore structures of the gasified char and its development solely dominated the gasification rate, while the intrinsic surface reaction was also involved. As presented later this study, the kinetic of Zone I and II can be well modeled by random pore model and mixed model, respectively. In the final stage of gasification as the carbon conversion efficiency above 0.9, the pore of the char particles started to collapse and disappeared and the reaction rate was controlled by the surface chemical reaction. Another evidence29 from Raman spectroscopy study supported the domination effect of the surface chemical reaction, that was the graphitization of carbon residue in the gasified char. Therefore, the char gasification when the carbon conversion efficiency above 0.9 was not suggested.
Fig. 2 The gasification rate versus the carbon conversion efficiency using 100% CO2 at selected operating conditions. |
Temperature | Carbon conversion | k1/k3 | Correlation coefficient |
---|---|---|---|
950 °C | 10% | 1.263 | 0.99 |
20% | 0.968 | 0.95 | |
30% | 0.927 | 0.94 | |
40% | 0.868 | 0.951 | |
50% | 0.811 | 0.95 | |
60% | 0.750 | 0.96 | |
70% | 0.762 | 0.96 | |
80% | 0.766 | 0.97 | |
90% | 0.781 | 0.96 | |
1050 °C | 10% | 0.78 | 0.99 |
20% | 0.81 | 0.99 | |
30% | 0.82 | 0.98 | |
40% | 0.71 | 0.98 | |
50% | 0.69 | 0.98 | |
60% | 0.74 | 0.98 | |
70% | 0.77 | 0.97 | |
80% | 0.65 | 0.95 | |
90% | 0.76 | 0.98 | |
1150 °C | 10% | 0.616 | 0.98 |
20% | 0.539 | 0.97 | |
30% | 0.522 | 0.98 | |
40% | 0.452 | 0.96 | |
50% | 0.538 | 0.98 | |
60% | 0.527 | 0.98 | |
70% | 0.455 | 1 | |
80% | 0.474 | 0.94 | |
90% | 0.525 | 0.97 |
The obtained data, listed in Table 2, were consequently used in eqn (8) to calculate the extent of pressure order (n). The calculated pressure order (n), with respect to the partial pressure of the reactant gas at the different carbon conversion efficiency during the char gasification, was shown in Fig. 3. The calculated pressure order of the selected char in this study was found almost constant at about 0.4 under operational pressures of 1.0 and 2.0 MPa, but increased to 0.63–0.73 as the operational pressure dropped to 0.1 MPa. This was roughly in agreement to a pressure order in 0.5 (±0.04) obtained by Everson R. C. et al.19 and 0.53 by Lu and Do.37 The difference of pressure order parameters should be largely attributed to sources of char in different studies. The expanded literature studies revealed there was actually no consensus in previous studies regarding the pressure orders of very different coal samples and their corresponding chars at different operating conditions. The reported pressure order parameter of chat gasification was largely varied within a range between 0.2 and 0.8.19 However, it's true that the pressure order did decrease under an increase of operational pressures.43 Fig. 3 also implied that the temperature had little influence on the pressure order of the char gasification when the operational pressure was controlled constantly at 1.0 and 2.0 MPa.
The linear regression model could be applied to determine the activation energy (E) and frequency factor (A0). Fig. 5 shows the curves of the linear regression of gasification reaction rate. The analyzed values of kinetics parameters were summarized in Table 3. Table 3 clearly presented that both the activation energy and frequency factor increased when operation pressures increased.
Pressure, MPa | Temperature, °C | Reaction rate constant, k | Structural parameter, ψ | Activation energy, EI (kJ mol−1) | Frequency factor, AI (s−1 MPa−n) | Pressure order, n |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1.0 MPa | 950 | 3.43 × 10−5 | 2.11 | 45.8 | 0.015 | 0.42 |
1050 | 5.21 × 10−5 | 2.66 | ||||
1150 | 6.43 × 10−5 | 2.82 | ||||
2.0 MPa | 950 | 3.57 × 10−5 | 2.72 | 82.4 | 0.52 | 0.41 |
1050 | 6.06 × 10−5 | 2.91 | ||||
1150 | 1.12 × 10−4 | 2.91 |
Zone II: ρ = kIIPAn(1 − x)m, (0.6 < x ≤ 0.9) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pressure, MPa | Temperature, °C | Reaction rate constant, kII | Reaction order, m | Activation energy, EII (kJ mol−1) | Frequency factor, AII (s−1 MPa−n) | Pressure order, n |
1.0 MPa | 950 | 1.12 × 10−4 | 0.53 | 35.93 | 0.011 | 0.42 |
1050 | 2.09 × 10−4 | 0.53 | ||||
1150 | 2.44 × 10−4 | 0.39 |
Alternatively, the mixed model described in the Experimental section was used to estimate kinetics of the Zone II (0.6 < x < 0.9) of the char gasification at 1.0 MPa. The charts of lnρ versus ln(1 − x) were shown in Fig. 6, the results of the calculations, providing kr and reaction order values of the char gasification at different operational conditions. Fig. 7 showed Arrhenius plots of gasification rates in the Zone II. Because continuous gasification rates were obtained with the TGA, the gasification rate when carbon conversion efficiency between 0.6 and 0.9, where the reaction rate could be controlled by pore diffusion. Table 3 summarized the estimated kinetic parameters of the Zone II.
An overall kinetic model of the char gasification under the isothermal and pressurized conditions could be determined, after aforementioned factors (including pressure order, structural parameter, reaction order, and activation energy and frequency factor) were derived from the experimental results based on gasification mechanism and proper kinetics model. The kinetic parameters of the intrinsic reaction kinetics of the char gasification at 1.0 MPa, has been summarized in Table 3.
The results implied that it was incompatible to use a combined model to thoroughly present the complete conversion of the char–CO2 gasification, but seemed useful to determine the intrinsic reaction kinetics of the char gasification by two different combined models at Zone I and II. For more accurate interpretation of kinetics of the char gasification, based on the random pore model and mixed model were developed by the predicated intrinsic reaction parameters, which was found in a good agreement with the TGA data under different operating conditions. Also, the structural parameter of char, reaction order, the pressure order, the activation energies and the intrinsic pre-exponential factor were determined.
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