Activity of coal char on water-gas shift reaction

Abstract

The catalytic activity of coal chars derived from four Indonesian coals were examined in a fixed bed reactor at 800℃. The coal chars promoted the WGS reaction and each char showed different catalytic activities. The highest CO conversion was obtained from the WGS reaction over the char containing the high amount of Fe. The effect of BET specific surface area on the WGS reaction over the parent chars was less dominant compared with the effect of Fe content. Meanwhile, acid treated-char has catalytic activity and it has fairly good relation with their BET specific surface area. This result indicates the presence of carbon is also important for the progress of the WGS reaction.