Chemical-Looping Combustion of solid fuels in a laboratory fluidized-bed reactor

Paper in proceeding, 2010

When using solid fuel in a chemical-looping system, the char fraction of the fuel needs to be gasified before syngas react with the oxygen carrier. This can be done inside the fuel reactor with fuel and oxygen carriers well mixed, and, since this gasification is comparably slow, this will be the time limiting step of such a system. An option is to use an oxygen carrier that is able to release gas-phase oxygen which can react with the fuel by normal combustion giving a significantly faster overall fuel conversion. This last option is generally referred to as chemical-looping combustion with oxygen un-coupling (CLOU). In this work an overview is given of parameters that affect the fuel conversion in laboratory CLC and CLOU experiments. The main factor determining the fuel conversion, in both CLC and CLOU, is the fuel itself. High-volatile fuels are generally more rapidly converted than low volatile fuels. This difference in fuel conversion rate is more pronounced in CLC than in CLOU. However, the fuel conversion is also, both for CLC and CLOU, increased by increasing temperature. Increased steam and SO2 fraction in the surrounding gas will also enhance the fuel conversion in CLC. CO2 gasification in CLC appears to be very slow in comparison to steam gasification. H2 can inhibit fuel gasification in CLC whereas CO did not seem to have any effect. Possible deactivation of oxygen carriers due to SO2 or ash also has to be considered.