Experimental Study of Coal Topping Process in a Downer Reactor

Abstract

Experiments were carried out in a downer reactor integrated in a circulating fluidized bed combustor to examine the performance of the coal topping process. The effects of reaction temperature and coal particle size on the product distribution and their compositions were determined. The experimental results show that an increase in temperature will increase the yields of gas and liquid product, and the liquid yield decreases with the increase in coal particle size. The experiments exhibit an optimal condition for the liquid product. When the pyrolysis temperature is 660 °C and coal particle size is less than 0.28 mm, the yield of light tar (hexane-soluble fraction) reaches 7.5 wt % (dry coal basis). The light tar is composed of acid groups (57.1 wt %), crude gasoline (aliphatics) (12.9 wt %), aromatics (21.4 wt %), and polar and basic groups (8.6 wt %). The experiments indicate that the coal topping process is a promising technology for partially converting coal into liquid fuels and fine chemicals.