Gasification of Coal-Petcoke Blends in a Pilot Scale Gasification Plant

Abstract

This paper investigates the synergistic interaction in a gasification of coal and petcoke blends in a 150 kWth pilot scale gasification plant. Petcoke was used either in combination with coal or separately to produce syngas in an atmospheric fluidized bed gasifier using air as gasifying agent. Syngas composition and carbon conversion efficiency were recorded and calculated. The results show that the increase in petcoke content in the fuel blend tends to lower the syngas composition. In addition, the carbon conversion efficiency also decreased with the increase in petcoke percentage in the blend. However, the conversion efficiency and syngas composition started to increase again when the petcoke percentage in the blend was more than 50%. As far as the mixture of coal and petcoke is concerned, optimum gasification efficiency was obtained at a 90:10 coal:petcoke blend. The lowest heating value was observed when the mixture was at 50:50. Therefore this mixture needs to be avoided when gasifying the coal: petcoke blend because it has the minimum gasification efficiency.