A perspective on sodium-induced agglomeration of Zhundong coal gasification: Experiments and calculations

Abstract

In order to provide basic knowledge for the gasification utilization of low-rank Zhundong (ZD) coal in the process of circulating fluidized bed (CFB), this study focuses on gasification reactivity and ash related agglomeration of ZD coal mainly induced by sodium transformation. Typical ZD coal was pyrolyzed in a horizontal tube reactor by a rapid pyrolysis method at 900 °C. Isothermal and non-isothermal thermogravimetric analyses were used to study the gasification reactivity of ZD char under CO2 atmosphere. The effect of temperature, ranging from 850 °C to 1050 °C, on isothermal gasification was investigated, and the obtained gasification residues were analyzed to observe microscope morphology and evaluate agglomeration degree. The ternary system relationship of Na2O–SiO2–Al2O3 at each gasification temperature was calculated with FactSage to compare with the experimental results. The results show that: the gasification reactivity of ZD coal char is greatly affected by the gasification temperature. Higher temperature can increase the average specific gasification rate, thus shorten the reaction time that the carbon conversion reaches equilibrium. The gasification reactivity of coal char is proved to be better at higher temperature. The agglomeration characteristics were also affected by the gasification temperature. There is almost no melting and agglomeration phenomenon for 850 °C gasification residue, while a strong tendency to agglomeration is showed in other samples. However, when the mass fraction of local CaO on the surface of large particles is more than 40%, the melting phenomenon can be alleviated. According to the Na2O–SiO2–Al2O3 phase diagram, the positions of ZD coal and ZD char are located near the complete Slag-liq region, indicating that using ZD coal and ZD char at the operation temperature of CFB above 950 °C has strong risk of slagging, and a relatively lower gasification temperature, ∼900 °C, is suitable for ZD coal/char gasification.