Effect of pre-treatment on catalytic coal gasification characteristics of sub-bituminous coal

Abstract Sintering or agglomeration is formed in the process of the gasification of coal when fluxing K2CO3, which leading to the entire bed defluidization. In order to study the catalytic coal gasification reactivity and agglomeration properties in pressurized fluidized bed, Wangjiata raw coal, demineralized coal with HCl-HF treatment, and raw coal with different amounts of clay mineral addition were selected. The catalytic coal gasification reactivity, the agglomeration and sintering properties were studied. As well as water-soluble catalyst recovery from the gasification residue was also determined. The results show that for potassium-catalyzed steam gasification, not only coal ash content but also composition affected the gasification reactivity, agglomeration, and catalyst recovery. The carbon conversion increased varying degrees with increasing K2CO3 loadings, K2CO3 impregnated coal showed a high degree of agglomeration, and agglomeration increased with increasing K2CO3 amount. Demineralized coal couldn't improve the agglomeration property. The addition of Clay mineral, was found to be very efficient in anti-sintering. However, compared with demineralized coal, the carbon conversion and water washing catalyst recoveries decreased obviously for those samples with the addition of clay minerals. The test verifies that part of potassium catalyst irreversibly reacted with coal ash to form relatively water-insoluble potassium compounds such as kaliophilite and sanidine.