The study on the effect of the substitution of K 2 CO 3 with Ca(OH) 2 on kinetics on CO 2 –lignite coal gasification Roosse Lee 1 • Dong Hyun Heo 1 • Jung Min Sohn 1 Received: 10 July 2015 / Accepted: 17 November 2015 / Published online: 12 December 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract Three kinds of lignite were mixed with K 2 CO 3 and Ca(OH) 2 and were gasified with CO 2 to investigate the effect that the addition of Ca(OH) 2 had on the gasification kinetics. K 2 CO 3 and Ca(OH) 2 were impregnated and dried, their mixing ratio was varied, and the gasification experiments were conducted over a temperature range from 850 to 950 °C at atmospheric pressure. The modified volumetric reaction model was applied as the gas–solid reaction model to analyze the carbon conversion results and thus obtain the kinetic parameters. The results indicate that the catalytic activity based on carbon conversion followed the order of K 2 CO 3 5 wt% ? Ca(OH) 2 3 wt% [ K 2 CO 3 8 wt% [ K 2 CO 3 3 wt% ? Ca(OH) 2 5 wt% [ K 2 CO 3 1 wt% ? Ca(OH) 2 7 wt%. The reaction rate was also influenced by the type of lignite, with a higher reactivity observed for Adaro lignite. The highest reaction rate constant was of 44.25 min -1 with Adaro lignite and K 2 CO 3 5 wt% ? Ca(OH) 2 3 wt% at 950 °C. The lowest activation energy of 44.49 kJ/min was calculated for Mongolia lignite with K 2 CO 3 8 wt%. The reaction rate was enhanced by partly substituting K 2 CO 3 with Ca(OH) 2 , but further substitution resulted in a decrease in the reaction rate compared to that of K 2 CO 3 alone. Keywords Lignite  CO 2 gasification  K 2 CO 3  Ca(OH) 2  Reaction rate  Activation energy & Jung Min Sohn jmsohn@chonbuk.ac.kr 1 Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Engineering, Chonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-Daero, Deokjin-Gu, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea 123 Res Chem Intermed (2016) 42:305–318 DOI 10.1007/s11164-015-2367-9