Fundamentals of coal topping gasification: Characterization of pyrolysis topping in a fluidized bed reactor

Coal topping gasification refers to a process that extracts the volatiles contained in coal into gas and tar rich in chemical structures in advance of gasification. The technology can be implemented in a reactor system coupling a fluidized bed pyrolyzer and a transport bed gasifier in which coal is first pyrolyzed in the fluidized bed before being forwarded into the transport bed for gasification. The present article is devoted to investigating the pyrolysis of lignite and bituminite in a fluidized bed reactor. The results showed that the highest tar yield appeared at 823 to 923 K for both coals. When coal ash from CFB boiler was used as the bed material, obvious decreases in the yields of tar and pyrolysis gas were observed. Pyrolysis in a reaction atmosphere simulating the pyrolysis gas composition of coal resulted in a higher production of tar. Under the conditions of using CFB boiler ash as the bed material and the simulated pyrolysis gas as the reaction atmosphere, the tar yields for pyrolytic topping in a fluidized bed reactor was about 11.4 wt.% for bituminite and 6.5 wt.% for lignite in dry ash-free coal base. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.