Carbon monoxide detection of chemisorbed oxygen in coal and other carbonaceous materials

The oxidation of carbon monoxide by mildly oxidized and devolatilized coal samples was studied thermogravimetrically. The oxidation was attributed to oxygen chemisorbed on inorganic components of the coals. The reaction of CO with pyrite producing carbonyl sulphide, OCS, accompanied the oxidation. A mechanism for CO oxidation is proposed in which active oxygen chemisorbed on the inorganic components of the coal directly oxidized CO to CO₂, and facilitates the chemisorption of CO on the coal as carbonate. A factor, α = (1114) [1 − (WnWc)]">α = (1114) [1 − (WnWc)], was derived where W_n is the sample weight loss not attributed to OCS formation, and W_c is the estimated weight of evolved CO₂. This quantity is proportional to the fraction of CO₂ produced by the direct oxidation of CO, and was used to compare the coal samples studied. Samples of an Illinois No. 5 coal yielded average α values of 0.7 and those of an Illinois No. 6 coal yielded values of 0.6, indicating that in these cases, the majority of CO₂ produced came from the direct oxidation of CO. The results obtained for the coal samples are compared with a selection of carbonaceous samples for which the proposed mechanism does not apply.