Investigation of thermochemical process of coal particle packed bed reactions for the development of UCG

Sutardi, T., Wang, L., Karimi, N. and Paul, M. C. (2020) Investigation of thermochemical process of coal particle packed bed reactions for the development of UCG. International Journal of Coal Science and Technology, 7, pp. 476-492. (doi: 10.1007/s40789-020-00360-x)

Abstract

In this study, a packed bed reactor was developed to investigate the gasification process of coal particles. The effects of coal particle size and heater temperature of reactor were examined to identify the thermochemical processes through the packed bed. Three different coal samples with varying size, named as A, B, and C, are used, and the experimental results show that the packed bed with smaller coal size has higher temperature, reaching 624 °C, 582 °C, and 569 °C for coal A, B, and C, respectively. In the case of CO formation, the smaller particle size has greater products in the unit of mole fraction over the area of generation. However, the variation in the porosity of the packed bed due to different coal particle sizes affects the reactions through the oxygen access. Consequently, the CO formation is least from the coal packed bed formed by the smallest particle size A. A second test with the temperature variations shows that the higher heater temperature promotes the chemical reactions, resulting in the increased gas products. The findings indicate the important role of coal seam porosity in underground coal gasification application, as well as temperature to promote the syngas productions.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wang, Dr Linwei and Karimi, Dr Nader and Paul, Professor Manosh and Sutardi, Mr Tata
• Authors: Sutardi, T., Wang, L., Karimi, N., and Paul, M. C.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: International Journal of Coal Science and Technology
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 2095-8293
• ISSN (Online): 2198-7823
• Published Online: 03 September 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2020
• First Published: First published in International Journal of Coal Science and Technology 7:476-492
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license