Syngas Production by the Gasification of Bayah’s Coal over Ca(OH)2 and Na2CO3 catalyst

Abstract

Official data of Indonesia’s coal reserve provided by government in 2014 approximately reached 104.8 billion tonnes. Bayah as a part of South Banten region has been stored quite amount of coal. Gasification is one solution to utilize Bayah’s coal potential. Coal Gasification is a conversion process of solid phase coal into synthetic gas mixture (CO, H2). Main reaction of the process involves Boundouard and Water-Gas-Shift reaction. The aim of experiment was to observes influence of several variables such as : Air Fuel Ratio (AFR), Temperature, and Catalyst at particular condition. Gasification process becomes beneficial when ratio of synthetic gas mixture (H2/CO) exhibits 2.0. Synthetic gas mixtures were analyzed by using gas chromatograph method. 300 grams of Bayah’s coal (14 – 18 mesh) were gasified in updraft type of fixed bed reactor using steam injection under Air Fuel Ratio varied between 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, temperature of 600°C, 700°C, 800°C and catalyst of Ca(OH)2 and Na2CO3 . Air Fuel Ratio of 1.5 and 800 with the help Ca(OH)2 catalyst tended to produce the optimum result for H2/CO ratio which obtained a value of 1.98. Synthetic gas composition  at this variation reached 33.8% for Hydrogen and 17.1% for Carbon Monoxide.