Chemical Looping Gasification, Reforming and Chemical Syntheses

Chemical looping technology is a manifestation of the interplay among such key elements of metal oxide reaction engineering and particle science and technology as particle synthesis, reactivity and mechanical properties, flow stability and contact mechanics, gas-solid reaction engineering and particulates system engineering. This presentation will describe the fundamental and applied features of modern chemical looping technology in the context of the circulating fluidized bed platform that utilizes fossil and other carbonaceous feedstock. It will discuss the reaction chemistry, ionic diffusion mechanisms, metal oxide synthesis and thermodynamics, reactor design, and system engineering along with energy conversion efficiency and economics of the chemical looping processes for, particularly, partial and selective oxidation for syngas and chemicals production. The Ohio States University has developed a number of advanced chemical looping gasification and reforming processes which will be highlighted in this presentation. Specifically, using CO₂ as a feedstock and its reactor modularization strategy in a chemical looping system adopted based on a non-linearity relationship in the variation of CO₂ and H₂O inputs with the syngas yields for gasification and reforming processes are illustrated from both the experimental and thermodynamic simulation viewpoints. The modularization strategy can directly be applied to scaling up processes when multiple reactors are needed leading to a considerable saving of the carbonaceous feedstock required to achieve a given syngas production.