A novel chemical looping partial oxidation process for thermochemical conversion of biomass to syngas

Xu, Dikai; Zhang, Yitao; Hsieh, Tien-Lin; Guo, Mengqing; Qin, Lang; Chung, Cheng; Fan, Liang-Shih; Tong, Andrew

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.130

Title: A novel chemical looping partial oxidation process for thermochemical conversion of biomass to syngas

Journal Article · Mon Apr 09 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Applied Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.130· OSTI ID:1997486

^[1]; Zhang, Yitao ^[1]; Hsieh, Tien-Lin ^[1]; Guo, Mengqing ^[1];

^[1]; Chung, Cheng ^[1]; Fan, Liang-Shih ^[1];

^[1]

Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)

The Biomass-to-Syngas (BTS) chemical looping process is an advanced thermochemical biomass conversion process for the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals. The BTS process is novel in that it converts biomass feedstock to high purity syngas with adjustable H₂:CO molar ratio without needing an air separation unit (ASU), a tar reformer, a steam reformer, or a water-gas-shift (WGS) reactor. In the BTS process, biomass feedstock is partially oxidized to produce syngas by oxygen carriers in a reducer that is operated in a co-current gas-solid moving bed contact mode. The reduced oxygen carriers are regenerated in a fluidized bed combustor via the oxidation reaction with air. The BTS process uses the iron-titanium composite metal oxide (ITCMO) material as the oxygen carrier, which is capable of cracking the volatiles produced in biomass pyrolysis as well as regulating the syngas composition. The co-current moving bed reducer eliminates back-mixing, channeling, or bypassing of solid and gas reactants, resulting in a syngas composition that is close to the thermodynamic equilibrium. In this paper, the rationale of a successful BTS process is discussed along with the thermodynamic characteristics of the ITCMO oxygen carrier, that can effectively react with a woody biomass feedstock, analyzed based on an ASPEN Plus model. Bench scale moving bed reducer experiments are presented, indicating the conversion of wood pellets to syngas with a H₂:CO ratio of 2, which is suitable for methanol or liquid fuel synthesis. The gas and solid composition produced in the bench scale reducer matches the prediction from the ASPEN Plus thermodynamic model. Furthermore, this model is further used to analyze the performance of the BTS process under autothermal conditions for methanol production, with a comparison with a baseline indirectly heated gasification process.

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Research Organization:: The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0007530

OSTI ID:: 1997486

Journal Information:: Applied Energy, Vol. 222; ISSN 0306-2619

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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