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Gasification of peat in a steam plasma reactor
Author(s) -
De Matons P. Grosdidier,
Gauvin W. H.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450630115
Subject(s) - molar ratio , carbon fibers , nitrogen , peat , heat of combustion , moisture , chemistry , plasma , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , nuclear chemistry , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , combustion , composite material , ecology , composite number , biology , physics , quantum mechanics
The gasification of finely‐divided peat (30‐micron and 48‐micron sizes respectively, and 11.4% moisture) was studied in a reactor 30.5‐cm ID and 178‐cm high, in the presence of a plasma flame consisting of nitrogen and steam, at an initial temperature of 4000 K, decreasing to 1200 K in the reaction zone. For a carbon‐to‐steam molar ratio of 1.37, a conversion of 81% of the carbon was achieved, yielding a gas analyzing 43% H 2 , 44% CO, 8% CO 2 , 4% CH 4 and 1% C 2 H 6 , with a calorific value of 266 kJ/g mol (319 Btu/ft 3 ). The results indicated that higher temperatures and a lower C/H 2 O ratio were required to achieve near total carbon conversion.