Coal Gasification:

Gasification involves conversion of solid fuels into gaseous fuels.

The conversion of solid coal to a gaseous mixture that can be burned as a fuel.
Example: During coal gasification, the coal is mixed with oxygen and steam (water vapor)
while also being heated and pressurized to form a gas rich in CO and H2.
Gaseous fuels known have several names, Producer gas, water gas or in general fuel gas.

How are Gaseous Fuels made from Coal?

Producer Gas
It comprises mainly of CO and N2 and is produced by blowing air or a mixture of air and
steam through hot bed of coal/coke.
In the simple and previous gas producers, dry air is blown through a bed of coal/coke of
sufficient depth and at a sufficiently high temperature as shown in the figure below:

The main chemical reactions in producer gas plant using coal/coke as fuel and dry air as a blast
for gasification are:
C + (O2 + 3.76N2) CO2 + 3.76N2H= -97 x 103 kcal/kgmol (1)
This reaction is highly exothermic in nature. Large amount of heat is evolved in this reaction.
Now at high temperature this CO2 is not stable and will immediately react with C according to
the reaction. (This can be explained adequately with the help of following diagram.)
CO2 + C = 2CO ..(2) H= 38270 kcal/kgmol
 1.00
0.90 CO2
Fraction CO or CO2 0.80 BOUDOUARD EQUILIBRIUM
1 ATM, K
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20 CO
0.10
0.00
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Temperature - K

This reaction is highly endothermic in nature.

Note: *Combustion reactions take place in a gasification process, but, in comparison with
conventional combustion which uses a stoichiometric excess of oxidant, gasification typically
uses one-fifth to one-third of the theoretical oxidant. This only partially oxidizes the carbon
feedstock. As a partial oxidation process, the major combustible products of gasification are
carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen, with only a minor portion of the carbon completely
oxidized to carbon dioxide (CO2). The heat produced by the partial oxidation provides most of
the energy required to drive the endothermic gasification reactions.

The net reaction which will occur is a sum combination of these two reactions.
2C + (O2 + 3.76N2) = 2CO + 3.76 N2 ..(3) H= -58730 kcal/kgmol
C + ( O2 + 3.76N2) = CO + 1.88 N2...(4) -HfCO = 29.6 * 103 kcal/kgmol
This net reaction is also exothermic in nature. Large amount of heat is generated.

According to equation 4, the producer gas is composed of CO and N2.

Producer gas CO +N2

% CO = = 34.6 %
.
.
% N2 = = 65.4 %
.
Conversion of C to CO will result in large evolution of heat and heat is of the order of 2467
kcal/kg of carbon.
This heat if not utilized will heat walls of reactors and goes waste. In order to compensate large
amount of heat which is produced, steam is used and in presence of steam, the reaction will be

C+ H2O CO + H2 . (5) H= 28440 kcal/kgmol

C + 2H2O CO2 + 2H2(6) H= 18600 kcal/kgmol
The reactions 5 and 6 are endothermic in nature.

Advantages of utilizing Steam

Producer gas formed is enriched in C.V as the total number of combustibles have
increased and the inert content is lowered. e.g. % CO = 34.6% and rest N2 in case of dry
air and % CO = 41.1% and H2 = 21.1% and rest N2 in case of air and steam.
Excess heat, released by reaction 4, is effectively utilized.
Gas is enriched on per unit volume basis.

Water in coal feed or steam in the air blast increases the proportion of H2 and CO in the gas, thus
raising its calorific value. If excess steam is added temperature of gasification is reduced; more
CO2 will be formed and its C.V will decrease. Therefore, optimum quantity of steam injection is
necessary.
One precaution is to be taken, you cannot put in steam indefinitely, because heat will be
consumed. So one have to provide, exact amount of steam.
Typically, gas producer, operates in a counter-current mode i.e. coal is charged from top and a
mixture of air and steam is blown through the coal bed simultaneously and continuously from the
bottom. The flow rates of air and steam are adjusted so that the heat evolution in the reaction of
O2 with C of coke/coal balances the heat absorption due to endothermic reaction of
decomposition of steam. Thus
Not all steam decomposes to H2; i.e. some amount of steam remain un decomposed and
Not all C is converted to CO.
The extent of these reactions depends on
Temperature of the fuel bed.
Time of contact between blast and fuel.
The reactivity of fuel and reaction surface area

Reaction Zones in Gas Producer

The fuel bed in a producer gas rests on a metallic grate which is divided into the number of
reaction zones viz. ash zone, oxidation zone, reduction zone, drying/carbonization zone with the
depth of the fuel bed.

Ash Zone
The air steam blast is preheated by ash zone which also uniformly distributes blast and protect
the grate from intense heat. Ash zone may be considered from the grate to the level at which the
descending fuel still contains the burning carbon. The thickness of the zone can be varied by
controlling the rate of removal of ash and must be sufficient to prevent overheating of grate from
fire.
Combustion Zone
In this zone, oxygen in the air blast reacts with the C in the fuel. The O2 in the blast is completely
consumed after passing through a thin layer of fuel. Gas samples taken from this zone show that
main product of combustion is CO2. Due to high heat of combustion, the temperature in this zone
is highest in fuel bed. All the oxygen is consumed within this zone. CO2 concentration reaches
the maximum at the top of combustion zone when CO just begins to appear.

Reduction Zone
This extends from the level at which no significant amount of free O2 remains in the gas up to
that at which no further reaction of fixed C with carbon-dioxide and steam occurs. The gas
entering this zone from below has a high content of CO2 and water vapor and is at a high
temperature.
At the temperature of 1100-1200C to which the fuel at the base of this zone is heated, the
reactions like C+ H2O CO + H2 and CO2 + C = CO are very rapid so that the content of
combustible gases rises very rapidly and CO2 and steam content falls.
Since these reactions absorb heat the temperature falls with increasing height above grate and
level it goes down to 800C, where no significant gasification occurs.

Drying/Carbonization Zone
Fresh fuel fed from the top of the bed comes in contact with the fuel that has already become
heated and with hot gases leaving the reduction zone. It is successfully dried, preheated and
carbonized, adding water vapors, tarry vapors to the gas leaving the producer.