Biomass chemical looping gasification for high-quality syngas

Biomass chemical looping gasification for high-quality syngas: A critical review and technological outlooks

Goel, Avishek (Tampere University)
Mohammadzadeh Moghaddam, E. (TU Delft Complex Fluid Processing)
Liu, Wen (Nanyang Technological University)
He, Chao (Tampere University)
Konttinen, Jukka (Tampere University)

2022

Biomass chemical looping gasification (BCLG) offers significant advantages over the conventional biomass gasification process in terms of enhanced gasification efficiency, inherent CO₂ capture, process circularity, and mitigated emissions of pollutants. This review discusses the prevailing status of research and development of BCLG in terms of production of high-quality syngas and negative carbon emissions based on the latest experimental and modelling studies. In particular, the design of the BCLG process and reactors is compared with conventional gasification. This review suggests that the BCLG process could be 10–25 % more efficient than the conventional combustion and gasification system in terms of economical H₂-production cost (3.37 USD/kg H₂-produced) and negative life cycle emissions of CO₂ (−14.58 kg-CO₂e/ kg-H₂ produced). This review has extensively considered the effects of process parameters and oxygen carriers (OCs) on gasification chemistry and reaction engineering during BCLG experiments. More specifically, the properties of OCs have been holistically analysed from technological, economic, and environmental perspectives to screen appropriate and affordable OCs for BCLG. In addition, the state-of-the-art modelling studies on BCLG are compared in terms of thermodynamic equilibrium, kinetics, and integrated processes. Technological challenges and research gaps in experiments and modelling have been highlighted in order to advance the BCLG process for industrial applications. In particular, further experimental work is needed to tackle issues related to stability and deactivation of OCs, fluidisation and circulation, the mechanical strength of OCs, the optimisation of feed conversion, and the integration and management of various thermal reactors. It is also desired to enhance the accuracy of models by incorporating optimisation of integrated processes and a more detailed reaction mechanism. Overall, BCLG is a promising negative emissions technology for renewable energy production, yet more innovative efforts in experimental and modelling studies are imperative to move towards more practical applications.

Biomass
Carbon dioxide capture
Circular economy
Modelling
Negative emissions
Oxygen carrier

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8e493b4c-cf75-411c-81e4-9544065b8256

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2022.116020

0196-8904

Energy Conversion and Management, 268

Institutional Repository

review

© 2022 Avishek Goel, E. Mohammadzadeh Moghaddam, Wen Liu, Chao He, Jukka Konttinen