(197e) Insights From Process Engineering Simulations for Envisioning Design of Chemical Looping Combustion Process for Solid Fuels

Chemical Looping Combustion is currently being investigated as a novel technique for coal combustion with carbon capture. The research community is exploring options to extend the promising results of laboratory studies on chemical looping combustion of coal into an economically viable combustion process.

Process Engineering Simulations for Chemical Looping Combustion of coal have been developed in ASPEN PLUS. A simplified case for chemical looping combustion of coal with copper oxide into gaseous components has been studied using equilibrium reactor models. The fluidized bed fuel and air reactors have been modeled as a series of equilibrium reactors. The temperature of the fluidized bed has been studied as a function of coal, copper oxide flow rates and heat input. It has been observed that the temperature of the conceptualized fuel equilibrium reactor was sensitive to the mass ratio of copper (II) oxide to coal. An inference which could be drawn from the study is that a proper distribution of coal and copper oxide particles is important in maintaining the temperature throughout the length of the fuel fluidized bed reactor. A similar study has been done for analyzing the effect of distribution of copper (I) oxide and air on the temperature throughout the length of the conceptualized air fluidized bed reactor. The analysis suggests possibilities to conceptualize novel process configurations for combustion of coal, taking into consideration that the combustion process for coal occurs over a wide temperature range.

The talk would also feature results of a techno-economic analysis conducted based on the simulations with kinetics of coal combustion incorporated in the process models.