A laboratory scale fixed-bed coal conversion reactor part 1: Operation, reaction zone identification and industrial representativeness

•We examine coal combustion and gasification on laboratory, pilot and industrial scale.•We validate a unique post experiment bed dissection method.•We mimic representative temperature profile on laboratory scale.•We mimic representative reaction zones on laboratory scale.

Fixed bed coal gasification and combustion operations form an important part in the global energy supply, and these processes are characterized by complex interactions which are difficult to study on an industrial scale. A laboratory scale fixed-bed coal conversion reactor (LSR) was therefore constructed and used to mimic pilot and industrial scale fixed bed combustion and gasification. The initial design aims were to establish operating conditions comparable to that of previous pilot and commercial scale work. Secondary design aims were to keep operations less expensive, more flexible, while using smaller samples and particle sizes and maintaining representativeness. The laboratory scale reactor is 1200 mm in length and has an internal diameter of 104 mm. A 500 mm coal bed is initially loaded into the reactor and converted to produce an ash bed of 100 mm. The coal loading for this reactor was on average 3.6 kg in comparison to the 240 kg of the pilot scale reactor (PSR). A maximum temperature of 1250 °C was maintained to assure similarities to pilot and industrial operations. Seven thermocouples measured the axial temperature profile in the reactor. Measurement capabilities inside the reactor and post experiment bed dissection have shown that bed temperature profiles and reaction zones were representative of both a pilot scale reactor (PSR) and a commercial scale reactor (ISR).