Coal thermochemical conversion processes unavoidably generate gaseous pollutants, endangering the environment or influencing synthetic processes downstream. In order to display the differences in release behaviours of nitrogen among different coal thermochemical conversion stages, the nitrogen release characteristics of Shenhua bituminous coal under Ar, CO2, and air atmospheres were investigated using X‐ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) and thermogravimetry‐mass spectrometry (TG‐MS). Results indicate that the reaction atmosphere has an important influence on nitrogen release. The total released mass of nitrogen when using 100 g raw coal in the whole experiment under Ar, CO2, and air atmospheres is 0.54, 0.64, and 0.75 g, respectively. The organic forms of nitrogen in raw coal and coal char are pyridine nitrogen (N‐6), pyrrole nitrogen (N‐5), quaternary nitrogen (N‐Q), and nitrogen oxide (N‐X). While in the coal ash, the sub‐peaks of N‐Q and N‐X disappear entirely, leaving only N‐5 and N‐6 sub‐peaks. The released nitrogen‐containing gas consists of NH3, HCN, NO, and NO2 during experiments in CO2 and air atmospheres. However, only NH3 and HCN are detected during experiments in the Ar atmosphere. The revolution characteristics of NH3 and HCN under Ar and CO2 atmospheres are similar.

A thermodynamic study on a toluene chemical looping reforming process with six metal oxides was conducted to evaluate the product distribution for selecting an appropriate oxygen carrier with thermodynamic favorability towards high syngas yield. The results show that a suitable operation temperature for most oxygen carriers is 900 °C considering syngas selectivity and solid C formation whether the toluene is fed alone or together with fuel gas. The syngas selectivity of all oxygen carriers decreases with the increasing equivalence ratio, but the decrease degrees are quite different due to their different thermodynamic natures. With the increasing amounts of H2 and CO, the syngas selectivity for various oxygen carriers correspondingly decreases. The addition of CO2 and H2O(g) benefits reducing the solid C formation, whereas the addition of CH4 leads to more solid C being produced. Under the simulated gasification gas atmosphere, a synergetic elimination of solid C and water–gas shift reactions are observed. In terms of syngas selectivity, Mn2O3 possesses the best performance, followed by CaFe2O4 and Fe2O3, but NiO and CuO exhibit the lowest performance. BaFe2O4 presents a high H2 selectivity but a very poor CO selectivity due to the formation of BaCO3, which has a high thermodynamic stability below 1200 °C. Nevertheless, Mn2O3 is more likely to form solid C than feeding toluene alone and has a lower melting point. Considering syngas selectivity, carbon deposit and melting point, CaFe2O4 exhibits the highest performance concerning the tar chemical looping.