LAUSR

Abstract During the operation of industrial gasifier, the concentrations of CO2 and H2O in gasification media vary with the change of stages, causing the gasification process being affected accordingly. Therefore, dividing the gasification process into different stages to study the effect of multi-stage switching atmosphere is significant. The conversion rate, reaction characteristics and reaction process for the gasification of Xiaolongtan (XLT) coal char in different atmospheres (CO2/H2O/N2) switching in the early, middle and late reaction stages were investigated using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results indicated that the average reaction rate of coal char with H2O was approximately 3 times that of CO2. Increasing H2O concentration improved the reaction and conversion rate of coal char, which was the most obvious in the early stage. With the H2O concentration increasing from 0 to 95%, the increment of conversion rate in the early, middle, and late stages are 7.13%, 4.40%, and 3.92%, respectively. Thus, considering the problem of H2O corrosion in practical production, the H2O concentration could be appropriately increased in the early stage to improve efficiency. Compared with the random pore model, the shrinking core model fitted the gasification process of coal char better in a highly reactive 95% H2O/5% N2 atmosphere.