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MODELING CHAR OXIDATION AS A FUNCTION OF PRESSURE ...

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conditions vary, with limits of zero and unity (Suuberg, 1988). Presently no theory can<br />

satisfactorily explain or predict how the reaction order of char oxidation would change<br />

with experimental conditions.<br />

The global n-th order rate equation has been criticized for lack of theoretical basis<br />

and inadequacy for predicting rates over wide ranges of experimental conditions,<br />

especially for high pressure char oxidation modeling (Monson et al., 1995; Monson, 1992;<br />

Essenhigh, 1996). Monson (1992) conducted about 100 char oxidation experiments using<br />

a high pressure drop tube reactor at 1, 5 10, and 15 atm total pressure with 5-21% oxygen<br />

in the bulk gas. The particle temperature ranged from 1400 to 2100 K. The pressure<br />

dependence of apparent reaction rate coefficients (A and E obs) was significant when<br />

assuming an apparent reaction order of 0.5. Variations of activation energies for a given<br />

coal as a function of pressure are thought to indicate the inadequacy of the n-th order rate<br />

equation in correlating these data.<br />

Langmuir-Hinshelwood Kinetics<br />

Fundamental studies show that the carbon-oxygen reaction involves<br />

chemisorption, oxygen surface diffusion, and desorption of surface oxygen complexes<br />

(Essenhigh, 1981; Essenhigh, 1991; Du et al., 1991). The n-th order rate equation fails to<br />

reflect the adsorption-desorption nature of this reaction. A more mechanistically<br />

meaningful representation of the intrinsic reaction rate is a Langmuir-Hinshelwood form<br />

(Laurendeau, 1978; Essenhigh, 1981), which in its simplest form becomes the Langmuir<br />

rate equation:<br />

r in ′ (C) = k1C 1 + KC<br />

13<br />

(2.17)

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