Contribution to the Modeling and Simulation of the Iron-Based Chemical Looping Combustion Process

The increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are directly linked to climate change. Given that most of the world's electric energy comes from fossil-fuel power plants, which produce a large amount of greenhouse gas (i.e., CO2), carbon capture and storage technologies seem to be a viable solution to reduce CO2 emissions. To investigate fossil-fuel chemical looping combustion in fluidized bed columns, a dynamic mathematical model was herein developed. The complex phenomena taking place in the iron-based chemical looping combustion process are described by assuming a pseudo-homogeneous system and a plug-flow regime for the fluidized columns. The mass and energy balance equations were written by using partial differential equations for both the gaseous and solid phases present in the process. The distribution and temperatures profiles of the gaseous and solid components as well as a study on the influence of the superficial gas velocity on the particle distribution were generated by model simulation. This computational approach allows for significant progress in the systematic analysis of chemical looping combustion to assess its potential for integration into the next generation of fossil-fuel power plants.