(816d) Experimental Characterization of Rotary Reactor for Chemical-Looping Combustion

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is currently one of the most promising methods to achieve Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). A novel rotary reactor concept for gas fueled combustion is proposed to eliminate the large energy penalties of traditional CCS technologies during the separation process.ⁱ The core of the reactor is a solid wheel consisting of numerous micro-channels rotating between fuel and air streams. Metal oxide, known as the oxygen carrier (OC), that reacts with fuel to generate undiluted CO₂ is coated on the inner surface of the channel walls. After the reduction reaction in the fuel zone, the OC is carried over to the air zone by the rotary wheel, where it is regenerated by the oxidation reaction. As a result pure CO₂ can be recycled and sequestrated from the flue streams of the fuel zone by condensing water.

A detailed numerical model has been developed to simulate and validate the capability of the reactor design to completely convert the fuel and capture CO₂ while maintaining desirable stabilities.[i]^,[ii] However, as the new reactor design employs different reaction mechanism than what is available in literature, experimental investigation is needed. A button cell reactor, which is connected to a mass spectrometer (MS) with real time gas analysis capability, is developed. The main goal of performing the experimental study is to investigate the physical and chemical processes that take place when reactive flow goes through the reactor. This includes fuel conversion, oxidation and reduction reactions of the OC, OC material selection and optimization, and the temperature variation and distribution along the reactor channel. Results of the experiments will be analyzed and used to validate the numerical simulations.