METHODOLOGY

Feedstock
The main feedstock for the present study is low rank coal and petroleum coke. Coal used
in this is Adaro coal from Indonesia. The other feedstock Petroleum coke or petcoke is a
carbonaceous solid derived from the delayed coker unit process of an oil refinery. For
gasification, fuel grade coke or sponge coke was used . Petcoke has high heat and low
ash content making it a good fuel for power generation in coal fired boilers, but it also
have high sulfur and low volatile content.
Fuel characteristics
The properties of solid fuels used in gasifier are generally expressed in three different
ways; calorific value, ultimate and proximate analysis. The calorific value is the amount
of heat produced when fuel is burned; the ultimate analysis provides an exact chemical
composition of fuel while the proximate analysis provides physical properties of fuel.
Calorific Value
Calorific value is the amount of heat released when fuel is burned. The calorific value is
important because it is needed to determine how efficient and amount of fuel required to
produce required thermal power. The calorific value of fuel was determined by using
Semi Automatic Bomb Calorimeter Model AC 600, LECO as per ASTM D 5865: Test
Methods for Gross Calorific value of Coal and Coke.
Proximate Analysis
The proximate analysis of a coal gives percentages by weight of moisture, volatile matter,
fixed carbon, and ash. The amount of moisture and ash will indicate the difficulty in
handling and burning the coal. A low percentage of volatile matter indicates a fuel that
may be difficult to burn. Fixed carbon is an indication of how hard the fuel is to
pulverize. The proximate analysis in this project is determined by using Perkin Elmer
Thermogravimetric Analyzer Pyris 6TGA and ASTM D 5142: Test Methods for
Proximate Analysis Sample of Coal and Coke by Instrumental Procedures was used.

Ultimate Analysis
The ultimate analysis provides information on the chemical composition of a fuel such as
carbon (C), hydrogen (H), sulfur (S), nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O). This information is
needed to calculate the theoretical amount of air needed for gasification process. The
ultimate analysis in this project is determined by using Truspec LECO CHN as per
ASTM method D 5373 Test Methods for Instrumental Determination of Carbon,
Hydrogen and Nitrogen in Laboratory Samples of Coal and Coke. Carbon and hydrogen
content is determined by burning a sample in a stream of oxygen and collecting the
carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) formed. The amounts of carbon and hydrogen are
calculated from the weight of CO2 and H2O collected. Nitrogen is measured by chemical
analysis of the sample. The percentage of oxygen in the fuel is calculated by subtracting
the sum of the other components from 100%. The chemical composition of the sample
can be determined by using the equation for the chemical reaction and the weights of the
sample before and the products after burning.
Sulfur is determined by a separate test using ELTRA CS500 Carbon Sulfur Determinator
PC Controlled. The method used was ASTM D 4329-08: Test Methods for Sulfur in the
Analysis Sample of Coal and Coke Using High-Temperature Tube Furnace Combustion
Methods. The amount of sulfur is determined by burning about 280mg 290 mg of
sample with oxygen at a temperature of 1350oC for 60 to 350 seconds.

Heating values
Heating values can be obtained from caloric value determination. At the same time it can
be calculated by Dulong formula (Perry & Chilton (1973) from ultimate analysis:
HHV (MJ/kg) = 33.8*C + 144.4*(H-O/8) + 9.428*S

Where C, H, O and S are mass fraction of the respective element obtained from ultimate
analysis. Other formula for calculating heating value put forward by Channiwala &
Parikh (2002) is given in equation 3.3 below:
HHV (MJ/kg) = 4.91*C + 17.83*H - 10.34*O - .51*N + 0.05*S - 2.11*Ash
(3.3)