Coal Char Gasification on a Circulating Fluidized Bed for Hydrogen Generation: Experiments and Simulation

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AbstractChar is the solid product of coal pyrolysis and its utilization is closely related to the scale of coal pyrolysis and tar processing. Char gasification is a promising choice for char utilization as it can provide hydrogen, which is needed for tar hydrogenation and chemical synthesis. However, reliable and mature coal char gasification technology has not yet been developed. The fluidized bed has been adopted as a gasifier in many studies, and its gasification temperature is relatively low. In this work, the feasibility of char gasification using a fluidized bed has been studied. A pyrolyzed bituminous coal char was gasified in a mixture of O2 and steam using a circulating fluidized bed. The height of the fluidized bed is 2360 mm and the inner diameter is 66 mm. The reactor is made of Ni‐Cd alloy steel, and a loopseal was used for solid circulation. In the experiments, the gasification temperature was varied between 870 and 900 °C, and the effects of O2/char and steam/char mass ratios on the gasification results were analyzed. The volume fraction of combustible gas, dry gas yield, carbon conversion, and lower heating value of the best case were 43.92 %, 1.64 Nm3 kg−1, 0.85, and 5.17 MJ N m−3, respectively. In addition, a simple model and a complex model were established by using Aspen Plus software. The two models were used to simulate char gasification, and the simulation results were validated with the experimental results. The results indicated that the complex model is more accurate than the simple model and is more suitable to simulate char gasification in a circulating fluidized bed.