Sujan Saha

Influence of high ash Indian coals in fluidized bed gasification under different operating conditions

Coal gasification has been internationally accepted as one of the most viable and effective clean coal technology for power generation. Presently, the coal being produced in India is having high ash content and it is a major constraint for most of the commercial applications in process industries. The present paper deals with the variation of higher heating value (HHV) of the product gas and carbon conversion with different inherent properties under different operating conditions in fluidized bed gasification. It has been observed that HHV of product gas increases with volatile mater, fixed carbon and temperature, whereas, mineral matter, air and steam show decreasing effect on HHV. On the other hand, carbon conversion increases with volatile matter, air, steam and temperature. It has also been observed that mineral matter provides catalytic effect to a certain level for carbon conversion, whilst, decreasing trend has been observed with the fixed carbon.

High Ash Char Gasification in Thermo-Gravimetric Analyzer and Prediction of Gasification Performance Parameters Using Computational Intelligence Formalisms

The coal gasification is a cleaner and more efficient process than the coal combustion. Although high ash coals are commonly utilized in the energy generation, systematic gasification kinetic studies using chars derived from these coals are scarce. Accordingly, this paper reports the development of the data-driven models for the gasification of chars derived from the high ash coals. Specifically, the models predict two important gasification performance parameters, viz. gasification rate constant and reactivity index. These models have been constructed using three computational intelligence (CI) methods, namely genetic programming (GP), multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network (NN), and support vector regression (SVR). The inputs to the CI-based models consist of seven parameters representing the gasification reaction conditions and properties of high ash coals and chars. The data used in the modeling were collected by performing extensive gasification experiments in the CO2 atmosphere in a thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA) using char samples derived from the Indian coals containing high ash content. Values of the two gasification performance parameters were obtained by fitting the experimental data to the shrinking unreacted core (SUC) model. It has been observed that all the CI-based models possess an excellent prediction accuracy and generalization capability. Accordingly, these models can be gainfully employed in the design and operation of the fixed and fluidized bed gasifiers using high ash coals.

MnOx supported on a TiO2@SBA-15 nanoreactor used as an efficient catalyst for one-pot synthesis of imine by oxidative coupling of benzyl alcohol and aniline under atmospheric air

In the present study, a mesoporous silica (SBA-15) encapsulated TiO2 nanoreactor is used as a support for MnOx and this MnOx/TiO2@SBA-15 acts as a catalyst for the one-pot synthesis of imine by oxidative coupling between benzyl alcohol and aniline in the presence of atmospheric air. To understand the properties, the catalysts were characterized by several analytical techniques, namely, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm, small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), wide angle X-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), H2-temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), O2-temperature programmed oxidation (O2-TPO) and NH3-temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD). The pore encapsulation process by SBA-15 causes TiO2 to be in a highly dispersed state, and this highly dispersed TiO2 makes maximum contact with the MnOx species as well as the reactant molecules. The reaction was carried out at atmospheric pressure with equimolar amounts of substrates without additives in the presence of atmospheric air. The yield and selectivity of imines vary with the MnOx and TiO2 loading. The 7.5 wt% MnOx loaded TiO2@SBA-15 (5 wt% TiO2) nanoreactor showed the highest catalytic activity. With the increase in weak acid sites and the oxygen activation ability of the prepared catalyst, the conversion and selectivity of the desired product reached 96% and 97%, respectively. The investigation of the reaction mechanism suggests that there is a synergistic effect between highly dispersed TiO2 and MnOx, which improves the reactant conversion and the selectivity of the desired product (N-benzylideneaniline) and also the prepared catalyst shows excellent recyclability up to the 10th cycle. The recyclability and hot filtration study confirms the true heterogeneity of the prepared catalyst during imine synthesis. The heterogeneity of the prepared catalyst, the avoidance of any noble metal and the utilization of air as an oxidizing agent represent an efficient, green reaction pathway for imine synthesis.