Investigation on gas release characteristics of catalytic coal pyrolysis using thermogravimetric analyzer-mass spectrometry

Abstract

ABSTRACT Potassium carbonate was employed as an effective catalyst to explore the catalytic pyrolysis characteristics of Shenfu bituminous coal (SF). The online investigation on the effects of catalyst loading amounts (2.2–6.6%) and pyrolysis temperature (650–800°C) on the gas release characteristics of SF pyrolysis were conducted using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis-mass spectrometry (TG-MS). The results show that the K2CO3 loading could increase the yields of pyrolysis gaseous products and reduce the peak temperature for gaseous product releasing. Peak temperatures for CO2, H2O, and CH4 releasing hardly changed with the pyrolysis temperature, but changed for different K2CO3 loading amounts. Peak temperatures for CH4, CO2, and H2 releasing decreased as catalyst loading increased while the peak temperatures for H2O releasing were almost independent as ~470°C. The increase of the K2CO3 loading amount and pyrolysis temperature could increase the yields of CO2 and H2, but had no significant effect on the CH4 yield. The release mechanism of pyrolysis gaseous products could be well verified by the variation in type and intensity of chemical functional groups from the coal samples versus pyrolysis temperature and K2CO3 loading.