Variation of the pore structure of coal chars during gasification

Abstract

The variation of the pore structure of several coal chars during gasification in air and carbon dioxide was studied by argon adsorption at 87 K and CO₂ adsorption at 273 K. It is found that the surface area and volume of the small pores (<10 Å) do not change with carbon conversion when the coal char is gasified in air, while those of the larger pores (10-20 Å, 20-50 Å, 50-2500 Å) increase with increase of carbon conversion. However in CO₂ gasification, all the pores in different size ranges increase in surface area and volume with increase of carbon conversion. Simultaneously, the reaction rate normalized by the surface area of the pores >10 Å for air gasification is constant over a wide range of conversion (>20%), while for CO₂ gasification similar results are obtained using the total surface area. However, in the early stages of gasification (<20%) the normalized reaction rate is much higher than that in the later stage of gasification, due to existence of more inaccessible pores in the beginning of gasification. The inaccessibility of the micropores to adsorption at low and ambient temperatures is confirmed by the measurement of the helium density of the coal chars. The random pore model can fit the experimental data well and the fitted structural parameters match those obtained by physical gas adsorption for coal chars without closed pores.