Hydrothermal extraction and gasification of low rank coal with catalyst Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3

Increasing coal quality is very important in order to utilize low-rank coal. This research is attempted to increase the quality of low-rank coal using hydrothermal process with hot compressed water (HCW) at 200 °C and 3 MPa. The product from this process were solid residue and liquid filtrate with organic component. Product from gasification of the filtrate was synthetic gas. The result showed that higher water flow rate could increase organic component in the filtrate. When a catalyst was used, the extraction process was faster, the organic component in the filtrate was increased while its content was decreased in the residue. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis indicated that coal extraction using HCW was more effective with catalyst Pd/Al2O3. Increasing the process temperature will increase the amounts CO and H2 gas. In this research, highest net heating value at 800°C using K2CO3 solution and Pd/Al2O3 catalyst was 17,774.36 kJ/kg. The highest cold gas efficiency was 91.29% and the best carbon conversion was 34.78%.