Insight into the internal relevance of three-phase products in supercritical water gasification of coal

Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) is a promising technology for coal utilization and has attracted more attentions. This paper is aimed to obtain coal gasification behavior and the internal relevance of products from the perspective of micro level. Evolution characteristics of three-phase products were employed in high heating rate batch reactor. As a result, removal of functional groups in solid particles led to the decrease of the gasification reactivity of char (Rcoal > R20s > R60s > R100s > R1200s). The hydrogen bonds formed by water forced the coal structure decomposition, in which the CO and CO2 gas were generated from the deetherization and decarboxylation reaction. H2 and CH4 primarily came from the collision of free radicals and polycondensation reaction. Liquid intermediate components were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography quantitatively. The content of phenol and naphthalene was up to 280.8 ppm and 3647.4 ppm, and the mutual conversion mechanism of organic matters and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was represented. Effectively controlling the ring growth of PAHs and the polycondensation of solid fragments is the primary goal to inhibit char formation, which is of great significance to decrease the irreversibility of chemical reaction process and realize the large-scale industrial production.