**Author details**

have different behaviors than that of the starting material which would impact the activation energy. In such cases, the dielectric properties of the produced intermediates should be measured and investigated to understand the potential of having hot spots that affect the reaction kinetics locally [14, 32, 33]. Therefore, further investigations are required to discover the fact behind the reported effects on the activation energy and other reaction kinetic parameters.

**Figure 8.** Effect of the speed mixing on the temperature profile in the saddle reactor.

As explained previously, the saddle reactor is mainly used to avoid the dilution of the product gas. Indeed, the solid sample can be very well mixed in the saddle reaction chamber without using a gas mixing agent. To prove this concept, different masses of silica sand—from

are for different mixing speeds, ranging from 15 to 30 RPM. The similar temperature profiles

New microreactors for the gasification of low-grade feedstock have been developed. The fluidized bed TGA was applied to the coal and ash-free coal gasification. New values of activation energies are obtained. The values for coal pyrolysis are from 34.7 to 59.8 kcal/mol, whereas the one for the CO shift reaction is 46.6 kcal/mol. The use of the potassium catalyst is allowed to reduce the activation energies of the CO shift and the methane-reforming reactions

C in the reactor. The results shown in **Figure 8**

**3.5 Saddle reactor**

250 Gasification for Low-grade Feedstock

**4. Conclusion**

20 to 30 g—were mixed and heated up to 350ᵒ

confirm the good mixing in the developed reactor.

Said Samih1,2, Sherif Farag1,3,4 and Jamal Chaouki1 \*

\*Address all correspondence to: jamal.chaouki@polymtl.ca

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering Advanced Research Lab (PEARL), Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montréal, QC, Canada

