Abstract
The present status of the research and development in catalytic coal gasification was overviewed. First, the strategy for process design was examined from chemical viewpoints: equilibrium, kinetics, and thermal balance. This examination clarified that the usefulness of catalyst application was limitted to only certain steps among many reactions occurring in a gasifier. Factors affectors on the catalyst effectiveness were also discussed: the catalyst type, the amount of catalyst, the gasification temperature, and so on. Alkali metal salts were evaluated as the most active catalyst, followed by transition metal catalysts. The mechanism of catalytic reaction was briefly considered from a thermodynamic point of view. Finally, the problems were pointed out which we may encounter upon scaling up a catalytic process. Loading of catalyst on coal and its recovery from a char-ash-catalyst mixture may be the most important field to be considered.
