(684c) Reaction Rate Analysis Relevant to Chemical Looping with Oxygen Uncoupling for Solid Fuels

Technologies based on the chemical-looping combustion concept have invited significant research attention, because of their potential in obtaining a high purity CO₂ stream with reduced energy penalty during the fuel combustion process. Chemical-looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU) involves two interconnected fluidized bed reactors, an air and a fuel reactor. The combustion of fuel takes place in the presence of oxygen that is released by the decomposition of a metal oxide (e.g. CuO) which serves as an oxygen carrier in a fuel reactor. The reduced metal oxide (Cu₂O) is subsequently re-oxidized in the presence of atmospheric oxygen in a separate air reactor.

In this talk, a methodology for calculating reaction rates based on the data obtained from previously published batch fluidized bed experiments on CLOU will be discussed. These experiments were done by alternating between air and fuel addition in the same reactor. During fuel cycles, the role of thermodynamics in conjunction with chemical kinetics for analyzing CuO decomposition reaction to release oxygen will be highlighted. A procedure to elucidate the solid fuel oxidation kinetics from batch-scale fluidized bed CLOU experiments will also be discussed. The Law of Additive Reaction Times has been used to analyze the Cu₂O oxidation reaction for the air reactor in this study. The utility of the rate analysis to offer insights for developing process engineering simulations for CLOU will also be discussed.