Abstract
Ashes from various kinds of biomasses were added and mixed with low-rank coal in order to investigate its catalytic effect on coal gasification. Gasification was performed in a fixed bed downdraft reactor at relatively low temperature under argon atmosphere using steam as gasifying agent. The effect of ash variation and its amount were tested in term of gas production and carbon conversion. Seaweed ash from brown seaweed showed the highest catalytic activity among the tested ashes. Char production decreased and gas production increased when ash was added to the coal sample. The catalytic effect of the ash was attributed to the high content of alkali metal in the seaweed ash. Even though decreasing gasification temperature could decrease the activity, the effect of ash addition was still found at low temperature. Therefore, biomass ash could be considered as an attractive option for a low cost and environmentally friendly coal gasification catalyst.
