Characterization of coal char conversion in oxidizing environments

The gasification and oxidation of a typical sub-bituminous coal char with oxygen at atmospheric pressure in an isothermal thermogravimetric analyzer were investigated. The experiments were performed at different temperatures (500–600 °C), and partial pressure of the oxidizer (1-40% O2) in order to predict the different behaviors of the solid fuel. A random pore model approach, with different kinetic scheme, was used to characterize the fate of residual solid in such a system. The intrinsic kinetic parameters of the suggested kinetic model were obtained by curve fitting using ad-hoc non linear regressions. This work presents a first comparison between the experimental data and the model, showing the ability of the latter to predict the reactivity of the coal char in different conditions.