Catalytic gasification reactivity and mechanism of petroleum coke at high temperature

Abstract In this study, high temperature catalytic gasification of petroleum coke pyrolysis char is studied. The influence of variant catalysts with high melting point and catalysts addition amount are explored, simultaneously the catalytic mechanisms are explored in depth. The results show that the petroleum coke pyrolysis char has a high crystallinity of 65.5% and gasification process is divided into two stages at lower and higher temperature. All catalysts can significantly reduce the gasification temperature, especially the final temperature. NaAlO2 has the highest catalytic performance of improving gasification reactivity by ~1.68 times and reducing gasification final temperature by ~170 °C, while the catalytic effect of MgO, Fe2O3, CaO and Fe3O4 at lower temperature are not obvious. With NaAlO2 addition increasing, especially above 0.8%, the gasification reactivity of petroleum coke pyrolysis char is improved prominently. Different catalysts have variant catalytic mechanisms. The activation of NaAlO2 is relatively stable with temperature increasing and is proven to be an ideal catalyst for petroleum coke high temperature gasification.