Determination of fouling characteristics of various coals under gasification condition

In a coal gasifier and heat exchanger, adhered and deposited fouling inhibits heat transfer making the stable operation of the gasifier difficult. Since heat-transfer performance of the heat exchanger directly affects the output of Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle plants, it is important to understand the effect of fouling on the characteristics of adhesion and deposition on the heat exchanger tube beforehand. But very few studies have been conducted about concerning the relationship between fouling property and adherability, which depend on the reducing condition on the gasifier system.The main purpose of the present investigation is to determine the low temperature ash deposition behavior under coal gasification condition by using drop tube furnace (DTF), in which behavior of coal particle in actual gasification condition can be simulated experimentally. Nine pulverized coal samples which are in the range of bituminous and sub-bituminous are injected into DTF under gasification condition. The ash particles are deposited onto sample collector by impacting and agglomerating actions; deposit samples of ash are collected, quantitative analyses are performed by EDX and weight measurements. Experiment results illustrated that mineral components are generally considered as a dominant parameter to determine behavior of ash deposition at low temperature among various physical and chemical properties of coal. It is also found that the alkaline earth mineral in coal ash such as MgO and CaO compounds leads to fouling deposition under the gasification condition.