Description:
The development of coal gasification has several disadvantages including high reaction temperature and big energy consumption, difficult purification of the gaseous products, and stringent requirements of the process equipment. It has also been pointed out to cause serious environmental pollution. To overcorne these problems, the coal catalytic gasification technique can improve the reaction rate and conversion efficiency cornpared to conventional gasification techniques. In this study, the experirnent was conducted by flowing nitrogen, oxygen, and steam, into the gasification equiprnent. The gasiflcation reactor was heated to 600 OC and 800OC, where dry coal had been initially fed into before the gasification process began. The flow rates of pyrolysis products were then measured and a sample was taken for further analysis by using a gas chromatograph. The analysis identified the products composition that was CO, CO2, H2, CH2, CH4, and C2H4. The experiments that used K2CO3 as a catalyst were conducted by feeding the catalyst into the reactor. After the catalyst started to react. tire coal was slowly fed. The composition of synthesis gas was observed to depend on the gasiflcation agent used. Based on the experiment of synthesis gas production from Indonesian low rank coal with catalyst K2CO3, it can be summarized that there is a good correlation between gasiflcation agent, coal and catalyst used, with the quality and quantity of synthesis gas produced.