Kinetic analysis of CO₂gasification of biochar and anthracite based on integral isoconversional nonlinear method

The nonisothermal thermogravimetric analysis was implemented for gasification of sawdust char (SD-char), wheat straw char (WS-char), rice husk char (RH-char), bamboo char (BB-char) and anthracite coal (AC) in the presence of CO2. The dependence of activation energy upon conversion for different biochars and AC was obtained by the integral isoconversional nonlinear (NL-INT) method which is a model-free method. Based on the activation energy values from the NL-INT method, a model-fitting method called random pore model (RPM) was used to estimate the kinetic parameters including the preexponential factor and pore structure parameter from the experimental data. The results are shown that the gasification reactivity of different samples from high to low can be sorted as that of WS-char, SD-char, BB-char, RH-char and AC. In the early stage of gasification, the activation energy values of biochars increase generally with an increase in the conversion degree, whereas the value of AC decreases. Thereafter, the activation energy values remain almost unchanged when the conversion is up to some extent. When the conversion degree varies between about 0.3 and 0.9, these carbon materials can be sorted in the order of average activation energy from low to high as WS-char, SD-char, AC, RH-char and BB-char, respectively, 134.3, 143.8, 168.5, 184.8 and 193.0 kJ/mol. It is shown that a complex multistep mechanism occurs in the initial stage of gasification, while a single-step gasification mechanism exists in the rest of the gasification process. The RPM is suitable for describing the gasification of biomass chars and AC except the initial gasification. Additionally, it is found that the kinetic compensation effect (KCE) still exists in the gasification reactions of biochars and AC. However, the AC deviates markedly from the KCE curve. This may be caused by the similarity of carbonaceous structure of biochars and the difference in reactivity between biochars and AC.