Effects of operating factors in the coal gasification reaction

The effects of operating factors on a gasification system were reviewed by comparing a computational simulation and real operation results. Notable operation conditions include a conveying gas/coal ratio of 0.44, an oxygen/coal ratio of 0.715, a reaction temperature of 1,000 °C, and reaction pressure of 5bar in the case of Adaro coal; based on this, the cold gas efficiency was estimated as 82.19%. At the point of the reaction temperature effect, because the cold gas efficiencies are more than 80% when the reaction temperatures are higher than 900 °C, the gasifier inner temperature must remain over 900 °C. At high reaction temperature such as 1,400 °C, the reaction pressure shows little effect on the cold gas efficiency. The addition of steam into the gasifier causes an endothermic reaction, and then lowers the gasifier outlet temperature. This is regarded as a positive effect that can reduce the capacity of the syngas cooler located immediately after the gasifier. The most significant factor influencing the cold gas efficiency and the gasifier outlet temperature is the O₂/coal ratio. As the O₂/coal ratio is lower, the cold gas efficiency is improved, as long as the gasifier inner temperature remains over 1,000 °C. With respect to the calorific value (based on the lower heating value, LHV) of produced gas per unit volume, as the N₂/coal ratio is increased, the calorific value per syngas unit volume is lowered. Decreasing the amount of nitrogen for transporting coal is thus a useful route to obtain higher calorific syngas. This phenomenon was also confirmed by the operation results.