Investigation into the kinetics of pressurized steam gasification of chars with different coal ranks

The steam gasification of coal chars derived from three different ranks of typical Chinese coals was studied in a pressurized fixed-bed differential reactor at elevated pressure (up to 2.0 MPa). Three mathematical models [volumetric model (VM), grain model (GM), and random pore model (RPM)] for the gasification kinetics of different chars were validated, through which the kinetic parameters were obtained and discussed. The results show that the evolution trend of the coal char gasification rate with carbon conversion differs from coal ranks and has little change with pressure and temperature. The pressurized gasification process of the Shenmu sub-bituminous coal char (SM char) and the Jingcheng anthracite char (JC char) can be well-predicted by the RPM, while that of the Huolinhe lignite char can be better described by the VM. The pressure has little effect on the options of the reaction kinetic models for the three chars. The kinetic parameter E is almost a constant independent of pressure, while k0 changes with pressure, and it seems that k0 would be almost a constant over 1.0 MPa for SM and JC chars. The reaction order decreases with increasing the total system pressure and differs from different coal types.