摘要
The addition of K2CO3, Na2CO3 and a mixture of the two catalysts showed an increase in the CO2 reactivity of the char prepared from the demineralized inertinite rich bitumious coal at 900 掳C in nitrogen. The CO2 reactivity of the char is higher when the catalysts are added to the coal before preparing the char in comparison to addition of the catalyst to the prepared char. The distribution of the catalyst on the char particles thus seems to be better upon addition of the catalyst to the coal (before charring). An added effect could be the evolution of CO2 during charring that may increase the surface area of the produced char. The surface area values of the chars (>400 m2/g) were higher than the values for the demineralized coal samples (approximately 150 m2/g) and the values for the char prepared from the coal with added catalysts increased from 413 to 445 m2/g. XRF, XRD and QEMSCAN analyses were performed to determine the species of K2CO3 and Na2CO3 formed during thermal treatment of the samples. KCl, NaCl, K2O and Na2O are some of the species that were detected.