CO2 gasification of eucalyptus wood chars

Chars obtained from Eucalyptus grandis sawdust at different carbonization temperatures were gasified with CO2 in isothermal and non-isothermal t.g. experiments. At low and intermediate conversion values the reactivity can be reasonably well explained in terms of the development of surface area as gasification proceeds. At high conversion values a steep increase in reactivity is observed which can be attributed to the increasing catalytic effect of the metallic constituents (mainly Na and K) of the inorganic matter present in the chars. Activation energies in the range 230-261kJ mol(-1) are obtained. Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.