Gasification characteristics of an activated carbon in supercritical water Original Research Article

The gasification characteristics of a granular, coconut shell activated carbon in supercritical water (600–650 °C, 25.5–34.5 MPa) were investigated. A rate law for carbon gasification in steam at subatmospheric pressure (<0.1 MPa) derived almost 50 years ago enjoys good agreement with our measurements. This agreement suggests the reaction mechanism is not strongly influenced by pressure. Methane formation under the conditions employed in this work is not affected by pressure and may be pyrolytic in origin. An iodine number increase of 25% was observed as a result of gasification in supercritical water.