Gasification potential and kinetics of Jordanian oil shales using CO2 as the reactant gas

In this article the results of measurements of the rate of evolution of car bon monoxide, hydrogen, and hydrocarbon gases during,gasification, using a continuous-feed fluidized bed reactor, from Jordanian oil shales are report ed. The influences of the bed temperature (750-950 degrees C) with CO2 as t he fluidizing gas on the quality and quantity of produced fuel gas were inv estigated. It was found that there was a nearly linear increase in the prod uct gas volume as a function of temperature, reaching similar to 300 Nm(3) (i.e., 330 kg) per tonne of dry raw shale and the gross calorific value ran ged from 15 to 23 MJ / kg with CO and H-2 being the major constituents. In order to determine the gasification kinetics, subsequent experiments were c arried out, employing a thermogravimetric analyzer under similar conditions as applied to the fluidized bed reactor. Gasification of the investigated shales was found to comply with first-order kinetics within the limits of e xperimental error Decreasing the particle size resulted in a higher percent age of total weight loss. Also, the activation energy and temperature where the rate maxima of reactivity occurred decreased slightly as the particle size was reduced.