Investigations of Both Catalytic Steam Gasification of Indonesian Lanna Coal and Potassium Catalyst Recovery Using K2CO3 as a Catalyst

The K2CO3-catalyzed steam gasification process of an Indonesian low-rank coal (Lanna coal) was studied, and the gasified residue was collected and used as a sample in the catalyst recovery process. The catalyst recovery process was mainly investigated by changing several operating parameters and washing methods, in order to evaluate the performance of the whole process. The shrinking core model was applicable to predict this gasification reactivity. H2-rich syngas can reach 71.02 vol % at a gasification temperature of 800 °C with 20 wt % K2CO3 loading amount when the CO2 capture efficiency was 90%, and carbon conversion (XC) reached 87.78% simultaneously. The potassium compounds in the gasified residue were found to coexist as K2CO3, K2SO4, and KAlSiO4. The optimal catalyst recovery efficiency (ηK) reached 84.69% by conducting three washes using the combined washing method. The variations of surface area, total pore volume, and average pore size under different washing methods were analyzed using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and Barrett–Joyner–Halenda analyses after the catalyst recovery process was conducted. In addition, a new and advanced technology was developed that incorporates carbon capture, utilization, and storage with these two processes.