The gasification reactivities of three kinds of different coal ranks (Huolinhe lignite, Shenmu bituminous coal, and Jincheng anthracite) with CO₂ and H₂O was carried out on a self-made pressurized fixed-bed reactor at increased pressures (up to 1.0 MPa). The physicochemical characteristics of the chars at various levels of carbon conversion were studied via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and BET surface area. Results show that the char gasification reactivity increases with increasing partial pressure. The gasification reaction is controlled by pore diffusion, the rate decreases with increasing total system pressure, and under chemical kinetic control there is no pressure dependence. In general, gasification rates decrease for coals of progressively higher rank. The experimental results could be well described by the shrinking core model for three chars during steam and CO₂ gasification. The values of reaction order n with steam were 0.49, 0.46, 0.43, respectively. Meanwhile, the values of reaction order n with CO₂ were 0.31, 0.28, 0.26, respectively. With the coal rank increasing, the pressure order m is higher, the activation energies increase slightly with steam, and the activation energy with CO₂ increases noticeably. As the carbon conversion increases, the degree of graphitization is enhanced. The surface area of the gasified char increases rapidly with the progress of gasification and peaks at about 40% of char gasification.

This paper investigated the effect of the pressures, reaction atmospheres and coal ash species on the ash fusibility with high-pressure thermogravimetric analysis (PTGA) apparatus and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Each specimen analyzed by XRD was observed for the mineral conversion and formation of new minerals with the pressures under different atmospheres. These results indicate that the pressure restrains the transformation and decomposition of minerals. Many low-temperature minerals are still present under the elevated pressure. The different reaction atmospheres have different effects on the formation of coal ash minerals. Under the N₂ atmosphere, the present microcline may decrease the melting temperature of coal ash. And later, it transforms into sanidine at high pressure; thus, the melting temperature of coal ash may increase. Under the CO₂ atmosphere, the minerals such as microcline, lomonitite, geothite and illite are still present with the increase in pressure; this may reduce the melting temperature. While under the H₂O atmosphere, there are magnetite and anorthoclase, which may produce the low-temperature eutectics decreasing the melting temperature. The coal ash abundance in basic oxides or higher SiO₂, Fe₂O₃, K₂O and Na₂O has lower melting temperature. While the ash sample with more SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ and less Fe₂O₃ and basic oxides may lead to higher melting temperature.

The syngas composition change during the measurement process was analyzed using a detailed gas phase reaction mechanism. Results showed that the measurement error induced by the temperature and pressure change in the measurement process cannot be ignored. Based on the results, suggestions were proposed for syngas concentration measurement and temperature measurement.

The residual gas and remained raw gas in dual gas resources polygeneration system are quite complex in components (mainly CH₄, CO, and H₂), and these results to the distinguished differences in combustion reaction. Experimental investigations on basic combustion characteristics of syngas referred above are conducted on a laboratory-scale combustor with flame temperature and flue gas composition measured and analyzed. Primary air coefficient (PA), total air coefficient (TA), and components of the syngas (CS) are selected as key factors, and it is found that PA dominates mostly the ignition of syngas and NO_x formation, while TA affects the flue gas temperature after high temperature region and NO_x formation trend to be positive as H₂/CO components increase. The results provide references for industrial utilization.

Laminar flame speeds of natural gas-carbon monoxide-air mixtures are calculated by CHEMKIN II with GRI Mech-3.0 over a large range of fuel compositions, equivalence ratios, and initial temperatures. The calculated results of natural gas are compared with previous experimental results that show a good agreement. The calculated laminar flame speeds of natural gas-carbon monoxide-air mixtures show a nonmonotonic increasing trend with volumetric fraction of carbon monoxide and an increasing trend with the increase of initial temperature of mixtures. The maximum laminar flame speed of certain fuel blend reaches its biggest value when there is 92% volumetric fraction of carbon monoxide in fuel at different initial temperatures. Five stoichiometric natural gas-carbon monoxide-air mixtures are selected to study the detailed chemical structure of natural gas-carbon monoxide-air mixtures. The results show that at stoichiometric condition, the fuel blend with 80% volumetric fraction of carbon monoxide has the biggest laminar flame speed, and the C normalized total production rate of methane with 80% volumetric fraction of carbon monoxide is the largest of the five stoichiometric mixtures.

Laminar flame speeds of hydrogen/natural gas/air mixtures have been measured over a full range of fuel compositions (0–100% volumetric fraction of H₂) and a wide range of equivalence ratio using Bunsen burner. High sensitivity scientific CCD camera is use to capture the image of laminar flame. The reaction zone area is employed to calculate the laminar flame speed. The initial temperature and pressure of fuel air mixtures are 293 K and 1 atm. The laminar flame speeds of hydrogen/air mixture and natural gas/air mixture reach their maximum values 2.933 and 0.374 m/s when equivalence ratios equal to 1.7 and 1.1, respectively. The laminar flame speeds of hydrogen/natural gas/air mixtures rise with the increase of volumetric fraction of hydrogen. Moreover, the increase in laminar flame speed as the volumetric fraction of hydrogen increases presents an exponential increasing trend versus volumetric fraction of hydrogen. Empirical formulas to calculate the laminar flame speeds of hydrogen, natural gas, and hydrogen/natural gas mixtures are also given. Using these formulas, the laminar flame speed at different hydrogen fractions and equivalence ratios can be calculated.

Regeneration of a high-temperature coal gas desulfurization sorbent is a key technology in its industrial applications. A Fe₂O₃-based high-temperature coal gas desulfurizer was prepared using red mud from steel factory. The influences of regeneration temperature, space velocity and regeneration gas concentration in SO₂ atmosphere on regeneration performances of the desulfurization sorbent were tested in a fixed bed reactor. The changes of phase and the composition of the Fe₂O₃-based high-temperature coal gas desulfurization sorbent before and after regeneration were examined by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), and the changes of pore structure were characterized by the mercury intrusion method. The results show that the major products are Fe₃O₄ and elemental sulfur; the influences of regeneration temperature, space velocity and SO₂ concentration in inlet on regeneration performances and the changes of pore structure of the desulfurization sorbent before and after regeneration are visible. The desulfurization sorbent cannot be regenerated at 500°C in SO₂ atmosphere. Within the range of 600°C – 800°C, the time of regeneration becomes shorter, and the regeneration conversion increases as the temperature rises. The time of regeneration also becomes shorter, and the elemental sulfur content of tail gas increases as the SO₂ concentration in inlet is increased. The increase in space velocity enhances the reactive course; the best VSP is 6000 h^-1 for regeneration conversion. At 800°C, 20 vol-% SO₂ and 6000 h^-1, the regeneration conversion can reach nearly to 90%.

A series of iron-manganese-based sorbents were prepared by co-precipitation and physical mixing method, and used for H₂S removal from hot coal gas. The sulfidation tests were carried out in a fixed-bed reactor with space velocity of 2000 h^-1(STP). The results show that the suitable addition of manganese oxide in iron-based sorbent can decrease H₂S and COS concentration in exit before breakthrough due to its simultaneous reaction capability with H₂S and COS. Fe₃O₄ and MnO are the initial active components in iron-manganese-based sorbent, and FeO and Fe are active components formed by reduction during sulfidation. The crystal phases of iron affect obviously their desulfurization capacity. The reducibility of sorbent changes with the content of MnO in sorbent. S7F3M and S3F7M have bigger sulfur capacities (32.68 and 32.30 gS/100 g total active component), while S5F5M has smaller sulfur capacity (21.92 gS/100 g total active component). S7F3M sorbent has stable sulfidation performance in three sulfidation-regeneration cycles and no apparent structure degradation. The sulfidation performance of iron- manganese-based sorbent is also related with its specific surface area and pore volume.

A commercial metal oxide sorbent for the desulphurization of coal-derived gas requires high desulphurization reactivity, mechanical strength, ability to regenerate, and stability to endure many sulfidation-regeneration cycles. In this paper, the sulfur capacity and multiple cycles of a nickel-modified ZnFe₂O₄ sorbent prepared by the sol-gel auto-combustion method were measured in a fixed-bed reactor at middle temperature of 300°C (sulfidation temperature) and 500°C (regeneration temperature). Also, the BET surface area, pore volume, average pore diameter and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the sorbent through multicycles were studied. Multicycle runs indicate that the sulfidation reactivity decreases slightly during the second cycle and keeps steady in the following cycles. The results indicate that the nickel-modified ZnFe₂O₄ keeps high reactivity and structural stability in the multicycle testing of sulfidation/regeneration.

A series of iron-based sorbents prepared with iron trioxide hydrate, cupric oxide by a novel method was studied in a fixed-bed reactor for COS removal from syngas at moderate temperature. In addition, the sorbents mixed with various additives in different ratios were tested. The effects of additive type and ratio on the breakthrough capacity and desulfurization performance, as well as the influence of operating conditions on sulfidation behavior of the sorbent, were investigated. The simulate gas contained 1% COS, 5% CO₂, 20%–30% CO and 60%–70% H₂. The outlet gases from the fixed-bed reactor were automatically analyzed by on-line mass spectrometry, and the COS concentration before breakthrough can be kept steady at 1 ppmv. The result shows that the breakthrough sulfur capacity of the sorbent is as high as 25 g-S/100 g. At 700 K and space velocity of 1000 h^-1, the efficiency of sulfur removal and breakthrough sulfur capacity of the sorbent increase with the increase of copper oxide with an optimum value. The result shows that the species and content of additives also affect desulfurization performance of the sorbent.

Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalysts with Cu/Zn/Al ratios of 6/3/1 were precipitated and aged by conventional and microwave heating methods and tested in the slurry phase reactor for methanol synthesis. The effect of technological condition of precipitation and aging process under microwave irradiation on the catalytic performance was investigated to optimize the preparing condition of Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalyst. The results showed that the microwave irradiation during precipitation process could improve the activity of the catalyst, but had little effect on the stability. While the microwave irradiation during aging process has a great benefit to both the activity and stability of the catalyst, the catalyst aged at 80°C for 1 h under microwave irradiation possessed higher methanol space time yield (STY) and more stable catalytic activity. The activity and stability of the catalyst was further enhanced when microwave irradiation was used in both precipitation and aging processes; the optimized condition for the catalyst precursor preparation was precipitation at 60°C and aging at 80°C under microwave irradiation.

A series of Pd/γ-Al₂O₃ hybrid catalysts were prepared by impregnation and subsequent calcination under microwave irradiation. The catalysts were used for direct synthesis of dimethylether (DME) from syngas. The results show that calcination under microwave irradiation improved both the activity and selectivity of the catalysts for DME synthesis. The optimum power of the microwave was determined to be 420 W. Under such optimum conditions, CO conversion, DME selectivity and time space yield of DME were 60.1%, 67.0%, and 21.5 mmol·mL^-1·h^-1, respectively. Based on various characterizations such as nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction, CO-temperature-programmed desorption, and Fourier transform infrared spectral analysis, the promotional effect of the microwave irradiation on the catalytic property was mainly attributed to both the higher dispersion of Pd and the significant increase in the adsorption on the CO-bridge of Pd. Microwave irradiation with very high power led to the increase in CO-bridge adsorption and thereby decreased the catalytic activity, whereas the coverage by metallic Pd of the active sites on acidic γ-Al₂O₃ significantly occurred under microwave irradiation with very low power, resulting in a decrease in the selectivity to DME.

The catalytic performance of Co-Mo-Ce-K/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst for the shift reaction of CO in coke oven gas is investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The results indicate that Ce and K have a synergistic effect on promoting the catalytic activity, and the Co-Mo-Ce-K/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst with 3.0 wt-% CeO₂ and 6.0 wt-% K₂O exhibits the highest activity. CeO₂ favors Co dispersion and mainly produces an electronic effect. TPR characterization results indicate that the addition of CeO₂-K₂O in the Co-Mo-Ce-K/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst decreases the reduction temperature of active components, and part of octahedrally coordinated Mo⁶⁺ transforms into tetrahedrally coordinated Mo⁶⁺, which has a close relationship with the catalytic activity.

The recent studies of direct alcohol/ether synthesis process in slurry reactors were reviewed, and the research work in our laboratory was carried out in this paper. a global kinetics model for direct dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis from syngas over a novel Cu-Zn-Al-Zr slurry catalyst was established according to the total of 25 experimental data, and a steady-state one-dimensional mathematical model was further developed in bubble column slurry reactor (BCSR), which was assumed that the bubble phase was plug flow, and the liquid phase was fully mixed flow. The numerical simulations of reactor design of 100000 t/a dimethyl ether pilot plant indicate that higher pressure and lower temperature were favorable to the increase of CO conversion, selectivity of dimethyl ether, product yield and height of slurry bed. The optimal operating conditions for DME synthesis process were obtained: reaction temperature at 240°C, reactor pressure at 5 MPa and reactor diameter of 2.5 m.

A new method, named the complete liquid-phase technology, has been applied to prepare catalysts for methanol synthesis. Its main innovative thought lies in preparing slurry catalysts directly from raw solution. Activity tests indicate that the CuZnAl slurry catalyst prepared by the new method can efficiently catalyze conversion of syngas to ethanol in a slurry reactor, while CO conversion reaches 35.9% and ethanol selectivity is more than 20%, with a total alcohol selectivity of more than 87%. No deactivation was found during the 192 h reaction .

A co-precipitation method was employed to prepare Ni/Al₂O₃-ZrO₂, Co/Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ and Ni-Co/Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ catalysts. Their properties were characterized by N₂ adsorption (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), temperature-programmed desorption (CO₂-TPD), and temperature-programmed surface reaction (CH₄-TPSR and CO₂-TPSR). Ni-Co/Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ bimetallic catalyst has good performance in the reduction of active components Ni, Co and CO₂ adsorption. Compared with mono-metallic catalyst, bimetallic catalyst could provide more active sites and CO₂ adsorption sites (C+ CO₂ = 2CO) for the methane-reforming reaction, and a more appropriate force formed between active components and composite support (SMSI) for the catalytic reaction. According to the CH₄-CO₂-TPSR, there were 80.9% and 81.5% higher CH₄ and CO₂ conversion over Ni-Co/Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ catalyst, and its better resistance to carbon deposition, less than 0.5% of coke after 4 h reaction, was found by TGA. The high activity and excellent anti-coking of the Ni-Co/Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ catalyst were closely related to the synergy between Ni and Co active metal, the strong metal-support interaction and the use of composite support.

An investigation was made using a continuous fixed bed reactor to understand the influence of carbon deposition obtained under different conditions on CH₄-CO₂ reforming. Thermogravimetry (TG) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to study the characteristics of carbon deposition. It was found that the carbonaceous catalyst is an efficient catalyst in methane decomposition and CH₄-CO₂ reforming. The trend of methane decomposition at lower temperatures is similar to that at higher temperatures. The methane conversion is high during the initial of stage of the reaction, and then decays to a relatively fixed value after about 30 min. With temperature increase, the methane decomposition rate increases quickly. The reaction temperature has significant influence on methane decomposition, whereas the carbon deposition does not affect methane decomposition significantly. Different types of carbon deposition were formed at different methane decomposition reaction temperatures. The carbon deposition Type I generated at 900°C has a minor effect on CH₄-CO₂ reforming and it easily reacts with carbon dioxide, but the carbon deposition Type II generated at 1000°C and 1100°C clearly inhibits CH₄-CO₂ reforming and it is difficult to react with carbon dioxide. The results of XRD showed that some graphite structures were found in carbon deposition Type II.

Axial density profile of the gas-liquid-solid mixture in a slurry bubble column was measured by gamma-ray attenuation technology. Several measures for improving measurement precision were presented based on the discussion on attenuation law. It was found that the response frequency and the ray intensity should be as high as possible to improve the measurement precision. The mass absorption coefficient depended on not the object’s thickness but the location where the object was placed between the ray source and the detector. The results showed that the density in the column decreases with the increase of column height, which indicates that the measurement by gamma-ray attenuation is reasonable.

The sensitivity analysis of a polygeneration energy system fueled with duo fuel of coke oven gas and coal gas is performed in the study, and the focus is put on the relations among syngas composition, conversation rate and performance. The impacts of the system configuration together with the fuel composition on the performance are investigated and discussed from the point of cascading utilization of fuel chemical energy. First, the main parameters affecting the performance are derived along with the analysis of the system configuration and the syngas composition. After the performance is being simulated by means of the Aspen Plus process simulator of version 11.1, the variation of the performance due to the composition of syngas and the conversion rate of chemical subsystem is obtained and discussed. It is obtained from the result that the proper conversion rate of the chemical subsystem according to the specific syngas composition results in better performance. And the syngas composition affects the optimal conversion rate of the chemical subsystem, the optimal point of which is around the stoichiometric composition for methanol production (CO/H₂ = 0.5). In all, the polygeneration system fueled with coke oven gas and coal gas, which can realize the reasonable conversion of syngas to power and chemical product according to the syngas composition, is a promising method for coal energy conversion and utilization.

The gas flow field in a cyclone separator, operated within a temperature range of 293 K – 1373 K and a pressure range of 0.1 – 6.5 MPa, has been simulated using a modified Reynolds-stress model (RSM) on commercial software platform FLUENT 6.1. The computational results show that the temperature and pressure significantly influence the gas velocity vectors, especially on their tangential component, in the cyclone. The tangential velocity decreases with an increase in temperature and increases with an increase in pressure. This tendency of the decrease or increase, however, reduces gradually when the temperature is above 1000 K or the pressure goes beyond 1.0 MPa. The temperature and pressure have a relatively weak influence on the axial velocity profiles. The outer downward flow rate increases with a temperature increase, whereas it decreases with a pressure increase. The centripetal radial velocity is strong in the region of 0 – 0.25D below the vortex finder entrance, which is named as a short-cut flow zone in this study. Based on the simulation results, a set of correlations was developed to calculate the combined effects of temperature and pressure on the tangential velocity, the downward flow rate in the cyclone and the centripetal radial velocity in the short-cut flow region underneath the vortex finder.

The Speziale, Sarkar and Gatski Reynolds Stress Model (SSG RSM) is utilized to simulate the fluid dynamics in a full baffled stirred tank with a Rushton turbine impeller. Four levels of grid resolutions are chosen to determine an optimised number of grids for further simulations. CFD model data in terms of the flow field, trailing vortex, and the power number are compared with published experimental results. The comparison shows that the global fluid dynamics throughout the stirred tank and the local characteristics of trailing vortices near the blade tips can be captured by the SSG RSM. The predicted mean velocity components in axial, radial and tangential direction are also in good agreement with experiment data. The power number predicted is quite close to the designed value, which demonstrates that this model can accurately calculate the power number in the stirred tank. Therefore, the simulation by using a combination of SSG RSM and MRF impeller rotational model can accurately model turbulent fluid flow in the stirred tank, and it offers an alternative method for design and optimisation of stirred tanks.

Slurry bubble column reactors (SBCR) is a three-phase fluidized reactor with outstanding advantages compared with other reactors and is difficult to scale-up due to lack of information on hydrodynamics and mass transfer over a wide range of operating conditions of commercial interest. In this paper, an experiment was conducted to investigate the bubble behavior in SBCR with a height of 5600 mm and an interior diameter of 480 mm. Bubble rise velocity, bubble diameter, and gas holdup in different radial and axial positions are measured in SBCR using four-channel conductivity probe. Tap water, air, and glass beads (mean diameter 75–150 μm) are used as liquid, gas, and solid phases, respectively. It shows that hydrodynamic parameters have good regularity in SBCR. Moreover, a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package, Fluent, was used to simulate the process in SBCR. The simulations were carried out using axi-symmetric 2-D grids. Data obtained from experiment and CFD simulation are compared, and results show that the tendency of simulation is almost uniform with the experiment, which can help to obtain further understanding about multiphase flow process and establish a model about the synthesis of alcohol ether fuel in SBCR.

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a major commercial technology for NO_x removal in power plants. There are a lot of complex chemical reactions in SCR reactors, and it is of great significance to understand the internal process of chemical reactions for SCR DeNO_x and study the impact of various factors on NO_x removal efficiency. In this paper, the impact of reaction temperature, ammonia-nitrogen molar ratio and resident time in the catalyst bed layer on NO_x removal efficiency were studied by simulation of chemical reactions. Then calculated results were compared with catalyst activity test data in a power plant, which proved that the simulated results were accurate. As a result, the reaction conditions were optimized in order to get the best removal efficiency of NO, so that we can provide a reference for optimal running of SCR in power plants.

In poly-generation and integrated gasification-combined cycle (IGCC) systems for clean energy conversion, it is essential to remove impurities such as sulfur species from hot coal gases prior to entering the subsequent units. This paper provides a comprehensive review on previous studies on high temperature removal of hydrogen sulfide from high temperature coal gases using iron-based sorbents. A two-step desulphurization process for hot coal gas cleanup is highlighted, which is integrated with direct production of elemental sulfur during regeneration of iron-based sorbents in the primary desulphurization step. Different kinetic modeling approaches for sulfidation and regeneration were compared. Limited research on activated carbon supported sorbents was also briefly summarized.