Co-gasification of Biomass with Coal and Oil Sand Coke in a Drop Tube Furnace

The present paper is aimed at investigating the co-gasification of biomass with coal and oil sand fluid coke. Chars were obtained from individual fuels and blends with different blend ratios of coal, oil sand coke, and biomass in a drop tube furnace at different temperatures. The chars were then gasified in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) under CO2 atmosphere to determine their reactivity, Results showed that the effect of the blending ratio of biomass to other fuels oil the reactivity of the co-pyrolyzed chars is more pronounced oil chars prepared at low temperatures and the effect becomes less significant as the pyrolysis temperature increases. The increased reactivity at a higher biomass blending ratio is due to the presence of synergetic effects originating from the interaction of the two fuels. Scanning electron microscopy images showed differences in shapes and particle size distribution of char particles from biomass and coal/coke. These also showed the agglomeration of coal and coke chars with biomass char particles at high temperatures. The agglomeration may be the reason for the non-additive behavior of the blends. The chars were also analyzed for the particle size distribution using a laser diffraction Mastersizer instrument and surface area with the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) technique. BET analysis showed an increase in the surface area with an increasing temperature from 700 to 1400 degrees C for biomass and coal but the trend for coke was inversely related to the temperature.