Gasification of bamboo carbon with molten alkali carbonates

Abstract

Solid carbon can be used as a fuel in the direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). The chemical oxidation of carbon with alkali carbonates was investigated in this work. Decreasing the weight ratio of carbon to carbonate from 5 g: 5 g to 5 g: 20 g had an insignificant effect on the amount and concentration of gases. However, changing the amounts from 5 g: 5 g to 20 g: 20 g tripled the total amount of gases produced with similar gas compositions. The gas compositions ranged from 62.2–67.5 mol% CO, 13.9–14.7 mol% H2, and 5.7–16.8 mol% CO2 at 800 °C. Thus CO was the dominant gas species in the conditions. With increasing temperature, CO generation was activated, especially over 700 °C. The carbonate species did not affect carbon oxidation. Steam was supplied to the carbon and carbonate mixture at a fixed flow rate of N2 or air. H2 was the highest composition at both cases.