Abstract:

This paper presents a numerical analysis and experimental investigation of two very different solid fuels, low-rank bituminous coal of 40 % ash content and petrocoke of 3 % ash content, gasification under steam and air plasma conditions with an aim of producing synthesis gas. Numerical analysis was fulfilled using the software package TERRA for equilibrium computation. Using the results of the numerical simulation, experiments on plasma steam gasification of the petrocoke and air and steam gasification of the coal were conducted in an original installation. Nominal power of the plasma installation is 100 kWe and sum consumption of the reagents is up to 20 kg/h. High quality synthesis gas was produced in the experiments on solid fuels plasma gasification. It has been found that the synthesis gas content at about 97.4 vol.% can be produced. Comparison between the numerical and experimental results showed satisfactory agreement. 

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