Experimental demonstration of chemical-looping combustion of syngas in packed bed reactors with ilmenite

• A standalone packed bed for high pressure CLC has been developed and demonstrated.
• The experimental results demonstrate that CLC can be achieved in packed beds.
• Stable operation is achieved in cyclic steady state experiments.
• Ilmenite has been demonstrated to be a valuable OC for the CLC in packed beds.

Chemical looping combustion of syngas has been investigated in a pressurized dynamically operated packed bed reactor using ilmenite as oxygen carrier. The combustion of both hydrogen and CO separately and in a typical syngas mixture over ilmenite have been experimentally tested in a relatively large laboratory-scale set-up and supported by numerical simulations. It has been found that wet syngas has to be used as reducing fuel to avoid excessive carbon deposition that reduces the CO2 capture efficiency of the system. The oxygen carrier particles have been demonstrated to be active for the CLC of syngas and the experimental results can be well described by a pseudo-homogeneous reactor model when properly accounting for the heat losses and the heat exchange with the reactor walls and thermocouples. The reactor system has been used up to 7 bar demonstrating that pressurized CLC can be easily accommodated in packed bed reactors. A maximum temperature rise of 340 °C has been obtained in the reactor, which is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction when accounting for the heat losses toward the reactor and thermocouple bodies.

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