In order to estimate the thermal efficiency of the production of high calorie gas from coal, calculation formulas were derived assuming a process that consists of two steps, i. e. hydrogasification and hydrogen manufacture, and the value of the efficiency was calculated on the basis of the material balance of hydrogasification obtained under various experimental conditions. Relationships were determined between the feeding ratio of hydrogen to coal and the coal conversion or the heat value of the product gas and between the coal conversion and the heat value of the product gas or of the residual char so that the thermal efficiency can be estimated accurately.
As a result, the following characteristics were made clear;
(1) the coal conversion is not affected by the gasification pressure and it is deter-mined almost wholly by the hydrogen/coal ratio;
(2) the heat value of the gas produced is well related to the hydrogen/coal ratio and attained to the maximum value of about 6, 500 kcal/m
3 at a hydrogen/coal ratio of 0.5m
3/kg; and
(3) the total heat value of the gas produced or the residual char is in a good linear relation with the coal conversion.
For a process wherein the total amount of hydrogen necessary for the hydrogasification is furnished completely by gasification of the residual char produced in the hydrogasification step, the heat value of the gas calculated is 6, 010-6, 430kcal/m
3 and the thermal efficiency of the process about 0.534-0.679. The thermal efficiency was also calculated on a process wherein an adequate amount of coal was supplemented in addition to the residual char in the hydrogen manufacture step, or a process wherein unreacted hydrogen in the product gas was separated and recycled to the hydrogasification step to fill up the defficiency of the hydrogen in the hydrogasification step.
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