CATALYTIC GASIFICATION OF COAL USING EUTECTIC SALT MIXTURES

Abstract

This progress report on the Department of Energy project DE-FG-97FT97263 entitled, ''Catalytic Gasification of Coal Using Eutectic Salt Mixtures'', covers the period April-September 1998. The specific aims of the project for this period were to identify appropriate eutectic salt mixture catalysts for the gasification of Illinois No.6 coal, evaluate various impregnation or catalyst addition methods to improve catalyst dispersion, and evaluate gasification performance in a bench-scale fixed bed reactor. The project is being conducted jointly by Clark Atlanta University (CAU), the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) with CAU as the prime contractor. Several single salt catalysts and binary and ternary eutectic catalysts were investigated at Clark Atlanta University. Physical mixing and incipient wetness methods were investigated as catalyst addition techniques. Gasification was carried out using TGA at CAU and UTSI and with a fixed-bed reactor at UTSI. The results showed better gasification activity in the presence of the catalysts tested. The eutectic salt studies showed clear agreement between the melting points of the prepared eutectics and reported literature values. The order of catalytic activity observed was ternary > binary > single salt. With the soluble single salt catalysts, the incipient wetness method was found to give better results than physical mixing technique. Also, catalyst preparation conditions such as catalyst loading, drying time and temperature were found to influence the gasification rate. Based on the Clark Atlanta University studies on Task 1, the project team selected the 43.5%Li{sub 2}CO{sub 3}-31.5%Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}-25%K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} ternary eutectic and the 29%Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}-71%K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} and 2.3% KNO{sub 3}-97.7%K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} binary eutectic for the fixed bed studies at UTSI. The eutectic salts were found to be highly insoluble in aqueous medium. As a result the technique of adding the eutectic to the raw coal was found to be better than using wet methods. Also, addition of the catalyst to the raw coal appeared to give better gasification results than addition to pyrolyzed coal. In addition, eutectic catalysts added to the coal yielded better gasification rates than rates obtained by mixing the individual salts in the eutectic ratio with the coal. These results, especially with the eutectic catalysts are very significant since the use of the low melting eutectics will reduce the severity of gasification processes.