A total
of 18 chars from the pyrolysis of six trios of sugar cane bagasses
(SCBs; original, water-washed, and acid-washed) were gasified with
CO2 at 900 °C, aiming at a quantitative description
of the rate of gasification catalyzed by inherent metallic species
and a correlation of the catalytic activity and its change during
the gasification with the metallic species composition. The measured
kinetics was described quantitatively over a range of char conversion,
0–0.999, by a model that assumed progress in parallel of the
catalytic gasification and non-catalytic gasification, together with
the presence of a catalytic precursor and three to four types of catalysts
having different activities and deactivation characteristics. A series
of regression analyses was scrutinized and reached expression of initial
catalytic activity as a linear function of Na, K, Ca, Fe, and Si concentrations
in the char with a correlation factor (r
2) of >0.98. The catalyst precursor contributed fully by water-soluble
Na, K, and Ca. Si was responsible for the catalyst deactivation during
the pyrolysis but not during the gasification. The chars produced
from original SCBs followed a linear relationship between the initial
catalytic deactivation rate and initial activity (r
2 > 0.99), while such a linear relationship was not
valid for those formed from the water-washed SCBs. This was explained
mainly by more rapid deactivation of the Fe catalyst in the chars
from water-washed SCBs than that in the chars formed from the original
SCBs. Na and K in char from the original SCBs, originating from the
water-soluble SCBs, chemically interacted with the Fe catalyst, slowing
its deactivation.
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