EQUILIBRIUM CALCULATIONS IN COAL-GASIFICATION

Coal gasification is commercially important due to its application in ammonia, hydrogen, methanol and synthetic fuel production and in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants. Accurate process evaluations are required for the development of new generation gasification technologies. Perhaps the most crucial component of this evaluation is the accurate prediction of product gas quality for varying feed streams and operating conditions. Operating conditions such as reactor hydrodynamics, temperature and pressure are variables which differentiate the gasifiers that are being offered for commercial applications (fixed bed, fluid bed, entrained flow, dry or slurry feed, air or oxygen blown). The present work demonstrates that for reactive coal feedstocks and for gasifers operating at relatively high temperature and pressure (entrained flow and fluidized beds), product gas compositions can be estimated, regardless of gasifier type, using chemical equilibrium principles. © 1990.