Solid circulation characteristics of the three-reactor chemical-looping process for hydrogen production

In this study, a cold mode TRCL system with non-mechanical valve was designed and constructed to investigate the solid circulation characteristics. A series of hydrodynamic tests on the system was performed in which zirconia (d¯ρ=181μm, ρs = 3850 kg/m3) was used as a bed material. The solid flow rate increased up to a maximum value with increasing gas velocity into the loop-seal. The gas leakages between AR and FR, and between FR and SR due to solid circulation were negligible. Furthermore, a two-dimensional (2D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using a commercial CFD code was carried out in order to better understand the flow behavior of the gas solid mixture inside the TRCL system.