Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit Untersuchungen zur Trockenentschwefelung von Brenngasen durch Partialoxidation von H2S an Herdofenkoks. Hierzu wurden Versuche in der Technikumsanlage VTE 2004 mit einem simulierten PHTW Gas durchgeführt. Es zeigte sich, dass der COS-Abbau nicht wie bisher angenommen durch die COS-Partialoxidation sondern durch die COS-Hydrolyse erfolgt. Die COS-Hydrolyse gewinnt dabei mit abnehmender Raumbelastung an Bedeutung. Der Entschwefelungsgrad erhöht sich mit steigendem Sauerstofffaktor und abnehmender Raumbelastung. Sauerstofffaktoren >4 sind aufgrund des vollständigen H2S-Umsatzes und der nicht ablaufenden COS-Partialoxidation nicht sinnvoll. Die Gewinnung des abgeschiedenen Schwefels auf dem Herdofenkoks konnte nachgewiesen werden. Abschließende Berechnungen ergaben, dass sich mit den erreichten Schwefelkonzentrationen im Reingas das Verfahren im aktuellen Entwicklungsstand für die Vorentschwefelung im IGCC-Kraftwerk eignet.

Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden Modelle zur Beschreibung des stationären und instationären Betriebsverhaltens der Komponenten der Vergasungsinsel - Bunker, Druckschleuse, Einspeisebehälter, Vergaser, Quench, Venturi-Wäscher, Teilverdampfer und Abscheider - in der Modellierungsumgebung Modelica/Dymola entwickelt. Im Vordergrund steht dabei die Entwicklung eines Modells des SFGT-Vergasers, das den Wärmeeintrag in den Kühlschirm berücksichtigt. Die verwendete Modellierungstiefe der einzelnen Komponenten ermöglicht die Erfassung des Einflusses aller wesentlichen Größen. Damit wird sowohl die genaue Beschreibung einzelner Anlagenkomponenten der Vergasungsinsel als auch die Beschreibung der gegenseitigen Wechselwirkungen ermöglicht. Mit dem entwickelten Modell des SFGT-Vergasers werden umfassende Untersuchungen zum Wärmeeintrag in den Kühlschirm durchgeführt.

Thermal co-processing of coal and biomass has been increasingly focused for its environmental and economic benefits. In the present work, the experimental and kinetic study on co-pyrolysis and co-gasification of Rhenish brown coal (HKN) and wheat straw (WS) was made. The pyrolysis behavior, especially for co-pyrolysis, was investigated in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and a small fixed bed reactor (LPA). In TGA, the mass loss and reaction rate of single and blend samples were studied under various experimental conditions, and their effects on synergy effects. The synergy effects on products yield and properties of chars were studied in LPA. The kinetics of pyrolysis was obtained based on data from TGA by using the Coats-Redfern method. For gasification with CO2, a small fixed bed reactor (quartz glass reactor), equipped with an online GC to monitor the gas composition, was used. The effects of processing conditions on gasification behavior and synergy effects for mixed chars and co-pyrolysis chars were investigated. The volume reaction model (VRM), shrinking core model (SCM) and random pore model (RPM), were applied to fit the experimental data. The model best fitting the experiments was used to calculate the kinetic parameters. The reaction orders of gasification reactions with single chars are also investigated. The pyrolysis study showed that a small amount of wheat straw added to the brown coal promoted the decomposition better and showed more significant synergy effects. The synergy effects varied with increasing heating rates and pressures, especially at 40 bar. The kinetic parameters were inconsistent with experimental behavior during co-pyrolysis, since the reaction was also affected by heat transfer, contact time, particles distribution and so on. The gasification study on single chars showed that Rhenish brown coal chars had higher reactivity; chars pyrolyzed at higher temperatures showed lower reactivity; and higher gasification temperatures and CO2 partial pressures led to higher reactivity. For co-gasification process, there was no significant synergy effect for mixed chars. However, negative synergy effects (reactivity decreased compared to the calculated values based on rule of mixing) were observed for co-pyrolysis chars, caused by properties change by co-pyrolysis process. For kinetics, the reaction orders of chars ranged from 0.3 to 0.7. Only random pore model fitted most experiments at low and high temperatures. Synergy effects were also observed in kinetic parameters. The values of activation energy E and pre-exponential factor A for mixed chars and co-pyrolysis chars were lower than expected. The negative synergy effects showed the pre-exponential factor A had more effects. However, the higher reactivity of mixed chars than co-pyrolysis chars showed that the reaction was affected more by activation energy E. Therefore, only investigating E or A value was not enough. In addition, a marked compensation effect between activation energies and pre-exponential factors was found in the present study. The isokinetic temperature for the present study was 856 °C. This was close to the temperature at which the gasification reaction transforms from the chemical controlled zone to the diffusion controlled zone for most chars.

The present study mainly focus on two parts: one was the optimization of FactSage calculation, compared with HT-XRD measurements on mineral matter behaviors during the heating of coal and blend ashes from 500 °C to 1000 °C in reducing atmosphere. The aim was to obtain the optimized input parameters and options for FactSage calculation, and the outputs should be as close as possible to HT-XRD results. The other was the application of FactSage on ash melting behaviors. Since the maximum temperature of HT-XRD measurement in laboratory was 1000 °C in reducing atmosphere, the optimized FactSage was applied to investigate the ash melting behaviors in temperature range between 600 °C and 1600 °C for coal, biomass and their blends. The FactSage calculation was optimized by investigations of several input parameters and options including the mass ratio of reactant gas amount to ash sample, solution species and compound solid species. The results obtained from the optimized calculation were much better to fit the mineral transformations measured by HT-XRD. However, there were still some differences between the results from optimized FactSage calculations and HT-XRD measurements. This is mainly due to the amorphous substances which occurred as solid phases and liquid slag in FactSage outputs but cannot be detected by HT-XRD. Besides, several factors, such as the diffusion, particle size distribution and so on, affect the actual measurements greatly but been neglected in thermodynamic calculations, which enhance the distinctions. In addition, the effects of atmosphere were investigated and the differences of mineral matter behaviors were mainly embodied in sulphur-rich minerals, iron-rich minerals and amorphous substance. For application of FactSage on ash melting behaviors, AFTs tests for coal, biomass and their blends were adopted, and the results were well investigated by ash chemical components analyzed by XRF and also equilibrium phases calculated by FactSage. Hemispheric temperature and flowing temperature were mainly dependent on the high melting point substances at high temperature, such as free CaO in HKN and SWC, SiO2 in WS and KOL. The sintering temperature was largely affected by alkali oxides, which could combine with other oxides to form low melting point substances. For blended ashes, AFTs of the blended ash of HKN and WS shown a V shape with WS addition mass ratio rising, and the minimum values of AFTs appeared at 50 wt.% WS addition. AFTs of KOL changed in a small scale when mixed with WS, due to their similar ash composition (high in SiO2). As the SWC ash contents is much less than HKN and KOL, it did not affect the AFTs much when blended with coals. Moreover, the biomass addition affection on the blended ashes AFTs were also well illustrated by the liquid phases mass fraction and also the mineral matter transformations calculated by FactSage.

The change in morphology of a char particle affects both its trajectory and carbon consumption rate, hence the performance and efficiency of an entrained-flow gasifier. Among key processes taking place in the gasifier, the char conversion process is a limiting step for the overall carbon conversion. For that reason, the Ph.D. thesis presents the evolution of morphology of char particles during the carbon conversion process using particle-resolved transient CFD calculations. Analyses of numerical data obtained from the transient CFD calculations were carried out. As a result, new sub models related to the drag coefficient and the fundamental parameters of char conversion model were emerged. The new sub models were applied for modeling a pressured entrained-flow gasifier at laboratory scale. The numerical results of the gasifier show a good agreement with experimental data and an improvement of the sub models applied.

The thesis primarily focuses on the pressure influence on the reaction rate of char gasification using laboratory thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). It discusses also the gasification of char with a mixture of gasifying agents (CO2 + steam) under a pressure of 40 bar and temperatures up to 1100°C, which has not been reported in the literature to the best of found knowledge. The first section investigates the pressure impact on char gasification kinetics by varying the total and partial pressure of the gasifying agent. The second section investigates the effect of gasifying agent at 40 bar and combining the pyrolysis step in the investigation, which was done in-situ under inert atmosphere. Then, mixtures of the two gasifying agents were used for the gasification in separate experiments. The third section uses raw coal as material and gives attention to the char structure formed after the pyrolysis under the high pressure. The fourth section includes measurements for char characteristics during the gasification reaction and compares them with the reference char data performed previously in this research group under atmospheric pressure.:Abstract 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Scope of the thesis 1 1.2 Layout of the thesis 2 2. Literature Review 4 2.1 Background 4 2.2 Coal and gasification 5 2.2.1 Coal classification and characteristics 5 2.2.2 Introduction to gasification process 7 2.2.3 Coal Analysis 10 2.2.4 Pyrolysis 13 2.2.5 Gasification reactions 13 2.2.6 Mechanism of solid-gas reaction and Thermodynamic background 14 2.2.7 Regimes of gas-Solid Reactions 17 2.2.8 Summary 19 2.3 Effect of Pressure on gasification process 20 2.3.1 Advantages of high-pressure operation 20 2.3.2 Influence on the pyrolysis step 20 2.3.3 Effect of Pressure on coal swelling 21 2.3.4 Pressure influence on char morphology 23 2.3.5 Effect of pyrolysis pressure on char surface area 23 2.3.6 Effect on reaction order n 24 2.3.7 Summary 24 2.4 Pressure influence on char gasification reaction kinetics 24 2.4.1 Pressure influence on gasification reaction kinetics 25 2.4.2 Summary 27 2.5 Char gasification using gasifying agent mixtures 27 2.5.1 Mechanism 29 2.5.2 The role of the inhibition and the catalytic effect 29 2.5.3 Summary 32 2.6 Thermodynamic aspects and the estimation of the reaction rate 32 2.6.1 Background 32 2.6.2 Basic definitions of reaction rate 34 2.6.3 Intrinsic kinetic models 35 2.6.4 Theoretical models 36 2.6.5 Empiric Models 39 2.6.6 Intrinsic kinetic models expressed by CO2 concentration 40 2.6.7 Arrhenius Activation Energy 40 2.6.8 Differentiation of a polynomial fit data (Differential method): 41 2.6.9 Summary 43 3. Experimental Analysis 44 3.1 Thermogravimetry 44 3.2 Testing of the gas volume fraction and the total pressure influence on char gasification 45 3.2.1 Testing of the gas volume fraction influence 45 3.2.2 Testing of system pressure influence on char gasification 56 3.2.3 Discussion 65 3.3 Coal gasification at 40 bar with pure CO2, H2O and their mixtures 65 3.3.1 Gasification with pure CO2 and H2O 66 3.3.2 Coal gasification using CO2 / H2O mixtures at high system pressure 87 3.3.3 Discussion 96 3.4 Pressure influence on coal gasification 100 3.4.1 Coal gasification under different system pressures 100 3.4.2 The effect of increasing pressure on coal morphology 104 3.4.3 Discussion 117 3.5 Influence of the pressure on the char properties during gasification 118 3.5.1 Discussion 129 4. General discussion 134 5. Conclusions 139 5.1 Significance of the findings 143 5.2 Recommendations 144 6. Appendix 146 6.1 Literature and Results 146 6.1.1 Conditions influence on gasification of the (a) temperature, (b) partial pressure 146 6.1.2 TGA-DMT 147 6.1.3 Testing of the gas volume fraction influence on coal gasification 148 6.1.4 Testing of system pressure influence on char gasification 150 6.1.5 Coal gasification at 40 bar with pure CO2, H2O and their mixtures 152 6.1.6 Coal gasification under different pressures 162 6.1.7 Summary of gas mixture gasification studies 167 6.2 Figures Index 169 6.3 Tables Index 175 6.4 References 177

The objective of this thesis is to provide an extensive description of the correlations in some of the most crucial sub-processes for hard coal fired IGCC with carbon capture (CC-IGCC). For this purpose, process simulation models are developed for four industrial gasification processes, the CO-shift cycle, the acid gas removal unit, the sulfur recovery process, the gas turbine, the water-/steam cycle and the air separation unit (ASU). Process simulations clarify the influence of certain boundary conditions on plant operation, performance and economics. Based on that, a comparative benchmark of CC-IGCC concepts is conducted. Furthermore, the influence of integration between the gas turbine and the ASU is analyzed in detail. The generated findings are used to develop an advanced plant configuration with improved economics. Nevertheless, IGCC power plants with carbon capture are not found to be an economically efficient power generation technology at present day boundary conditions.

The objective of this thesis is to provide an extensive description of the correlations in some of the most crucial sub-processes for hard coal fired IGCC with carbon capture (CC-IGCC). For this purpose, process simulation models are developed for four industrial gasification processes, the CO-shift cycle, the acid gas removal unit, the sulfur recovery process, the gas turbine, the water-/steam cycle and the air separation unit (ASU). Process simulations clarify the influence of certain boundary conditions on plant operation, performance and economics. Based on that, a comparative benchmark of CC-IGCC concepts is conducted. Furthermore, the influence of integration between the gas turbine and the ASU is analyzed in detail. The generated findings are used to develop an advanced plant configuration with improved economics. Nevertheless, IGCC power plants with carbon capture are not found to be an economically efficient power generation technology at present day boundary conditions.

This research has been performed in the framework of the Virtuhcon project, which intends to virtualize high temperature conversion processes. Coal gasification is one of these processes, which is nowadays considered as a promising technology for the chemical industry. This study is devoted to the coal char physical structure, which is one of the most important parameters influencing coal gasification reaction. First, this study presents the extensive literature review of the char physical structure role during its conversion. Collection of the char structural properties as well as their changes during char conversion are shown and discussed. Literature review is followed by the experimental investigations. Chars prepared from two brown coals (Lusatian and Rhenish) were gasified in a laboratory scale fluidized bed reactor in CO2 at temperatures of 800, 850, 900, and 950 °C and atmospheric pressure. Char samples were gasified completely as well as partially in order to evaluate the reaction kinetics and char structural changes during the reaction, respectively. Complete gasification curves were evaluated by different methods, including application of three gasification models (the Random Pore Model, the Volume Reaction Model, and the Shrinking Reaction Model), instantaneous reaction rate approach as well as the self-developed surface-related reaction rate approach. The results of different approaches were compared. This study also presents a comprehensive methodology to analyze coal char physical structure. The variety of measurement techniques (gas physical adsorption, mercury porosimetry, helium pycnometry, SEM, etc.) were applied to assess structural properties of the char, such as specific surface area, particle density, porosity, pore size and shape, structure morphology, etc. Problems associated with the choice of a proper measurement technique and the comparability of the data delivered by different techniques were discussed. The main objective of the study was to link char structural changes to the char gasification kinetics. The specific task of this thesis was to investigate pore size in relation to their availability for the reaction. As such, specific surface areas of pores of different sizes (from sub-micro to mesopores) were correlated to the instantaneous reaction rates. Both chars exhibit similar trends in their structural changes during gasification, although the absolute values differ, especially with respect to the pores of microscale. Furthermore, structural changes were caused not only by the reaction but also by the influence of the heat treatment, especially at the earlier stages of the reaction. The most reasonable correlation has been achieved between the instantaneous reaction rate and the specific surface area of mesopores. Sub-micro- and micropores did not govern the gasification reaction under given conditions. Finally, kinetic parameters derived from different evaluation methods were reapplied in order to test their ability to predict the experimental data. Each of the method has its advantages and disadvantages as used for the kinetic evaluation. The results of this study represent a substantive base of the experimentally derived data concerning physical structure and morphology of coal char. The findings can be used in numerical and simulation studies for development, validation, and improvement of the models which consider coal particle as a reactive porous solid.

This research has been performed in the framework of the Virtuhcon project, which intends to virtualize high temperature conversion processes. Coal gasification is one of these processes, which is nowadays considered as a promising technology for the chemical industry. This study is devoted to the coal char physical structure, which is one of the most important parameters influencing coal gasification reaction. First, this study presents the extensive literature review of the char physical structure role during its conversion. Collection of the char structural properties as well as their changes during char conversion are shown and discussed. Literature review is followed by the experimental investigations. Chars prepared from two brown coals (Lusatian and Rhenish) were gasified in a laboratory scale fluidized bed reactor in CO2 at temperatures of 800, 850, 900, and 950 °C and atmospheric pressure. Char samples were gasified completely as well as partially in order to evaluate the reaction kinetics and char structural changes during the reaction, respectively. Complete gasification curves were evaluated by different methods, including application of three gasification models (the Random Pore Model, the Volume Reaction Model, and the Shrinking Reaction Model), instantaneous reaction rate approach as well as the self-developed surface-related reaction rate approach. The results of different approaches were compared. This study also presents a comprehensive methodology to analyze coal char physical structure. The variety of measurement techniques (gas physical adsorption, mercury porosimetry, helium pycnometry, SEM, etc.) were applied to assess structural properties of the char, such as specific surface area, particle density, porosity, pore size and shape, structure morphology, etc. Problems associated with the choice of a proper measurement technique and the comparability of the data delivered by different techniques were discussed. The main objective of the study was to link char structural changes to the char gasification kinetics. The specific task of this thesis was to investigate pore size in relation to their availability for the reaction. As such, specific surface areas of pores of different sizes (from sub-micro to mesopores) were correlated to the instantaneous reaction rates. Both chars exhibit similar trends in their structural changes during gasification, although the absolute values differ, especially with respect to the pores of microscale. Furthermore, structural changes were caused not only by the reaction but also by the influence of the heat treatment, especially at the earlier stages of the reaction. The most reasonable correlation has been achieved between the instantaneous reaction rate and the specific surface area of mesopores. Sub-micro- and micropores did not govern the gasification reaction under given conditions. Finally, kinetic parameters derived from different evaluation methods were reapplied in order to test their ability to predict the experimental data. Each of the method has its advantages and disadvantages as used for the kinetic evaluation. The results of this study represent a substantive base of the experimentally derived data concerning physical structure and morphology of coal char. The findings can be used in numerical and simulation studies for development, validation, and improvement of the models which consider coal particle as a reactive porous solid.