Formation and measurement of the porosities, tensile strengths, and deformation coefficients of gasification filter cakes at operating temperatures and pressures

Various physical properties of filter cakes formed and studied at operating temperatures and pressures and under appropriate gas compositions and flow rates are important for the development of hot-gas filtration for integrated gasification combined cycle (IGGC) use of coal. Elutriated particles from a gasification pilot plant at the Federal Energy Technology Center of the U.S. DOE were used in a laboratory-scale apparatus to prepare filter cakes at various gas-flow velocities and over a range of temperatures (25–515 °C) and pressures (100–300 kPa) characteristic of the pilot plant. This laboratory apparatus also was used to measure the porosities, tensile strengths, and deformation coefficients of the cakes at these same temperatures and pressures. Various properties of the filter cakes have been correlated. It is believed that the novel experimental methods and interpretational model employed allow accurate laboratory measurement of these filter-cake properties for the operating conditions of large-scale plants, for use in engineering models of operating data and in theoretical models of filter-cakes and filter-cleaning.