Study on pulverized coal gasification using waste heat from high temperature blast furnace slag particles

A combined species transport and reaction-discrete phase model was established to numerically study pulverized coal gasification using waste heat from high temperature slag particles. The effects of slag particles temperature, coal/gasification agent mass ratio and water content in gasification agent on the gasification characteristics were discussed. The results indicate that higher particle temperature leads to better gasification reaction efficiency. Compared to the maximum syngas productivity (67.9%) and carbon conversion efficiency (91.7%) at 1500 K, they are respectively reduced to about 45% and 60% when temperature drops to 1000 K. Excessive or insufficient pulverized coal would have a negative effect on the syngas production for a specific flow rate of gasification agent, and the appropriate proportion range is 0.8–0.84. The CO yield declines with the increase of particles diameter, while H2 firstly increases and then declines attributing to the lower gasification agent temperature and higher flow velocity gained at larger diameter. The raise of water content in gasification agent is beneficial to H2 production, but CO yield continues to decline after the water content exceeds 5% for the reason that the incomplete combustion of volatiles and the gasification reaction of coke are inhibited. The diameter of slag particles and the water content suitable for coal gasification reaction are 2.0–2.5 mm and 5%–10%, respectively.