Design and first application of a novel laboratory reactor for alkali studies in chemical looping applications

Abstract

Alkali compounds are readily released during biomass conversion and their complex interactions with reactor walls and sampling equipment makes detailed investigations challenging. This study evaluates a novel laboratory-scale fluidized bed reactor for chemical looping combustion (CLC) studies. The reactor design is based on detailed consideration of the behavior of alkali-containing molecules and aerosol particles and is guided by computational fluid dynamic simulations. The design allows for interactions between gaseous alkali and a fluidized bed, while minimizing alkali interactions with walls before and after the fluidized bed. The function of the laboratory reactor is demonstrated in experiments using online gas and alkali analysis. Alkali is continuously fed to the reactor as KOH or KCl aerosol with and without a fluidized bed of the oxygen carrier CaMn0.775Ti0.125Mg0.1O3-δ present in inert, reducing and oxidizing conditions at temperatures up to 900 °C. Alkali uptake by the OC is characterized in all conditions, and observed to sensitively depend on gas composition, reactor temperature and type of alkali compound. The experimental setup is concluded to have a significantly improved functionality compared to a previously used reactor, which opens up for detailed studies of interactions between alkali compounds and oxygen carriers used in CLC.