(24b) A Parametric Study of a Fluidized Bed Carbonator to Remove CO2

Post-combustion method has been viewed as the most suitable way for exiting power plants’ CO₂ mitigation. This paper mainly focuses on the utilization of reversible carbonation reaction of CaO to capture CO₂ from the flue gas and the effects of superficial gas velocity, the particle diameter and the calcination/carbonation cycle number on the carbonation process. A model has been built based on the KL fluidized bed model, and the results of the model have been compared with other researchers’ experimental data. It is concluded that the model can well present the experimental data; with the increase of superficial gas velocity, the carbonation process first turns worse then better; with the decrease of particle size, the absorption of CO₂ turns better, but there is still some limit to avoid the sintering; with the increase of cycles, the activity of the absorbent decays and the absorption turns worse. Therefore, in order to optimize the carbonation process the superficial gas velocity can increase gradually during the reaction and smaller-sized absorbent should be chosen. However, the limits of superficial gas velocity and absorbent size need to be taken into consideration as well to avoid sintering.