Abstract:
This work aims to investigate the structural evolution of the char during gasification under a single or mixed atmosphere of H
2O and/or CO
2 with the synchronized investigation of the effect of the varying char structure on the gasification reactivity. The experimental char was prepared from a bituminous coal at 1000℃. The changes of the char structure along with the progress of the carbon conversion during gasification were characterized using N
2 adsorption, SEM, and Raman spectroscopy. The results revealed that H
2O showed a more dramatically change on the char structure than CO
2 and two reactants had different reaction pathways. The different pathways of reactants affected the evolution manners of the char structure and different gasification reactivity of char was related to structural evolution. The specific reaction rate between the char and CO
2 decreased monotonously with increasing carbon conversion. However, the opposite trends are observed when H
2O exist, either H
2O alone or the mixtures of H
2O and CO
2. The char gasification reactivity was under the common effect of physical and chemical structure. In terms of the mixture of H
2O and CO
2, the significant specific surface area caused by H
2O provided more active sites for CO
2. The interactions between H
2O and CO
2 promoted reaction between C and CO
2 (C + CO
2 → CO) in mixtures of H
2O and CO
2, leading to higher amount of CO and higher specific reaction rate than calculated.