CO<sub>2</sub> Capture Using Chemical Looping Combustion from a Biomass-Derived Syngas Feedstock: Simulation of a Riser–Downer Scaled-Up Unit
Imtiaz Ahmed, Hugo de Lasa
Abstract
This simulation study demonstrates the scalability of chemical looping combustion (CLC) to achieve efficient capture of biomass-derived CO2. To achieve this, a 3D computational particle fluid dynamics (CPFD) simulation is implemented using Barracuda software. The process considers syngas from biomass gasification as a fuel as well as a highly performing nickel-based oxygen carrier (HPOC). A recently developed solid-state model is used to describe the HPOC CLC kinetics. The proposed CLC system includes two interconnected reactors: (a) a riser air reactor and (b) a downer fuel reactor. An oxygen carrier is circulated in a controlled manner via a newly implemented L-type loop seal, which is operated with an air pulse device. CPFD models are considered to assess the CLC unit performance. The CPFD simulation demonstrates that a 100 kW CLC reactor yields a 92% CO2 capture in both 10 and 12 m downer using a single unclustered and clustered particle models, respectively.