Catalytic steam gasification of bituminous coal for syngas production with catalyst derived from calcium-rich construction demolition waste

A disposable Ca-containing catalyst was generated from a sort of calcium-rich construction demolition waste and utilized in the steam gasification of a bituminous coal in a fixed bed reactor. The effects of catalyst loading amount, gasifying temperature and catalyst loading method on steam gasification with respect to the production of syngas with high H2/CO mole ratio and CH4 content were investigated. The H2 and CO molar yields as well as carbon conversion increased noticeably with the increase of catalyst loading amount despite there was a saturation quantity. After loading 6.0 wt% catalyst into coal by kneading method, the carbon conversion and total gas molar yield increased from 52.56% and 136.06 mmol/g-C to 62.77% and 160.23 mmol/g-C, respectively. At low temperature, kneading method displayed superiority over mechanical mixing method in steam gasification performance of bituminous coal while they had approximately the same catalytic effect on coal steam gasification at high temperature. Characterization of SEM images and Raman spectroscopy of coal chars derived from catalytic pyrolysis confirmed that addition of catalyst changed the micro-crystal structure and formed more defects and amorphous structures. Overall, the catalyst showed satisfactory catalytic effect in steam gasification of bituminous coal and could be used as a suitable alternative of CaO for syngas production.

Automated summary

The study investigated the use of a disposable Ca-containing catalyst generated from calcium-rich construction demolition waste in the steam gasification of bituminous coal. It was found that increasing the catalyst loading amount significantly improved the molar yields of H2 and CO, with kneading method being an effective loading technique.