Scale-up of fixed-bed chemical looping combustion

Abstract

With chemical looping combustion (CLC), the condensation of water from the combustion product stream yields essentially pure CO2 that can be readily compressed for transport and storage. Using synthesis gas as fuel, fixed-bed CLC is studied with the optimization of systems ≤ 1 kw. The production of pure CO2 is optimized while the pressure drop over the reactor is minimized. The ability to have a sharp breakthrough of the fuel at the outlet of the reactor is an important parameter and the amount of pure CO2 that can be produced before contamination from the slip of fuel gives a measure of system performance. The total fuel required to complete a full reduction is another indicator of efficiency and has a logarithmic relationship with respect to the size of the reactor. Improvement in the bed design and choice of flow rates should decrease the dependence on scale. With results for three different sizes of reactors, optimal packing and operating conditions can be predicted for increasingly larger systems while being customized to specific applications. Future research implications are discussed. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2011 AIChE Spring Meeting & 7th Global Congress on Process Safety (Chicago, IL 3/13-17/2011).