Pressurized drop tube furnace (PDTF) tests were performed with an Indonesia
n sub-bituminous coal while temperature, oxygen/coal ratio, steam/coal rati
o and pressure were systematically varied. The tests were designed to inves
tigate the effects of these experimental parameters on the pulverized coal
gasification characteristics at elevated pressure. The results showed that
the gasification at elevated pressure is more productive than that at atmos
pheric pressure, considering the carbon conversion and cold gas efficiency.
The oxygen/coal ratio at the maximum cold gas efficiency ranged between 0.
5 and 0.7 g/g. Only when the temperature was sufficiently high, did the inc
rease of steam/coal ratio result in the improvement of cold gas efficiency.
As the pressure increased, the contribution of carbon conversion by hetero
geneous reactions increased while the conversion by pyrolysis decreased. Co
pyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.