Gasification potential and kinetics of Jordanian oil shales using CO2 as the reactant gas

In this article the results of measurements of the rate of evolution of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and hydrocarbon gases during,gasification, using a continuous-feed fluidized bed reactor, from Jordanian oil shales are reported. The influences of the bed temperature (750-950 degrees C) with CO2 as the fluidizing gas on the quality and quantity of produced fuel gas were investigated. It was found that there was a nearly linear increase in the product gas volume as a function of temperature, reaching similar to 300 Nm(3) (i.e., 330 kg) per tonne of dry raw shale and the gross calorific value ranged from 15 to 23 MJ / kg with CO and H-2 being the major constituents. In order to determine the gasification kinetics, subsequent experiments were carried out, employing a thermogravimetric analyzer under similar conditions as applied to the fluidized bed reactor. Gasification of the investigated shales was found to comply with first-order kinetics within the limits of experimental error Decreasing the particle size resulted in a higher percentage of total weight loss. Also, the activation energy and temperature where the rate maxima of reactivity occurred decreased slightly as the particle size was reduced.