Gasification of pine sawdust via synergetic conversion using iron ore as a catalyst

A method of syngas production via a synergetic conversion of pine sawdust and iron ore was proposed. The roles of conversion temperature, iron ore dosage and calcination time in pine sawdust gasification conversion were investigated. The pyrolysis sequence of groups in pine sawdust was analysed as O-H, C-H, C=O → aromatic ring → C-O-C. A syngas yield of 74.2% with CO proportion of 54.0% was obtained as pine sawdust converted with iron ore dosage of mol(C/Fe) = 0.6 at 1000 °C for 20 min. Iron ore can be used as not only a catalyst to promote the pyrolysis of pine sawdust, generating more combustible gases (increased by 53.1%), but also an oxygen donator to convert carbon in pine sawdust into CO (increased by 89.4%). Meanwhile, iron ore was reduced into pre-reduced product which can be used in blast furnace.