Thermogravimetric study of coal and petroleum coke for co-gasification

As a preliminary study of gasification of coal and petroleum coke mixtures, thermogravimetric analyses were performed at various temperatures (1,100, 1,200, 1,300, and 1,400 °C) and the isothermal kinetics were analyzed and compared. The activation energies of coal, petroleum coke and coal/petroleum coke mixture were calculated by using both a shrinking core model and a modified volumetric model. The results showed that the activation energies for the anthracite and petroleum coke used in this study were 9.56 and 11.92 kcal/mol and reaction times were 15.8 and 27.0 min. In the case of mixed fuel, however, the activation energy (6.97 kcal/mol) and reaction time (17.0 min) were lower than the average value of the individual fuels, confirming that a synergistic effect was observed in the coprocessing of coal and petroleum coke. This work was presented at the 6 ^th Korea-China Workshop on Clean Energy Technology held at Busan, Korea, July 4–7, 2006.