CO₂ Gasification of Sugar Cane Bagasse: Quantitative Understanding of Kinetics and Catalytic Roles of Inherent Metallic Species

Abstract

A total of 18 chars from the pyrolysis of six trios of sugar cane bagasses (SCBs; original, water-washed, and acid-washed) were gasified with CO2 at 900 °C, aiming at a quantitative description of the rate of gasification catalyzed by inherent metallic species and a correlation of the catalytic activity and its change during the gasification with the metallic species composition. The measured kinetics was described quantitatively over a range of char conversion, 0–0.999, by a model that assumed progress in parallel of the catalytic gasification and non-catalytic gasification, together with the presence of a catalytic precursor and three to four types of catalysts having different activities and deactivation characteristics. A series of regression analyses was scrutinized and reached expression of initial catalytic activity as a linear function of Na, K, Ca, Fe, and Si concentrations in the char with a correlation factor (r2) of >0.98. The catalyst precursor contributed fully by water-soluble Na, K, and Ca. Si was responsible for the catalyst deactivation during the pyrolysis but not during the gasification. The chars produced from original SCBs followed a linear relationship between the initial catalytic deactivation rate and initial activity (r2 > 0.99), while such a linear relationship was not valid for those formed from the water-washed SCBs. This was explained mainly by more rapid deactivation of the Fe catalyst in the chars from water-washed SCBs than that in the chars formed from the original SCBs. Na and K in char from the original SCBs, originating from the water-soluble SCBs, chemically interacted with the Fe catalyst, slowing its deactivation.