Techno-economic study of coal pyrolysis for production of chemicals using a high-pressure fluidized bed

Pyrolysis (devolatilization) is a thermochemical process to convert the carbon-based fuels into chemicals and syngas in absence of an oxidizer. In this work, we used a micro-fluidized bed system to evaluate the techno-economic potential of coal particles for production of chemicals during the fast pyrolysis process. For to do this, a comprehensive fluidized bed system was built and calibrated for pyrolysis of coal, where the silica sands were used as fluidization medium to provide an optimum reaction rate. Effects of some important factors such as reaction temperature and residence time on total and operating costs were evaluated. Results showed that, with increasing the residence time, total cost has been increased dramatically due to the fact that the increase in residence time leads to a significant enhancement in the reactor length.