Synthesis gas production with simultaneous CO2 capturing and consuming: Application of chemical looping combustion by employing Fe45‐Al2O3 and Mn40/Mg–ZrO2 oxygen carriers

Abstract

In this study, thermal coupling of chemical looping combustion (CLC) and dry reforming of methane (DR) via employment of Fe45‐Al2O3 and Mn40/Mg–ZrO2 oxygen carriers (OCs) were investigated. The main aim of this configuration (CLC‐DR) is the prevention of large CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by CLC and simultaneous consumption of the captured gas to synthesis gas through a DR reaction. For this purpose, a steady state one‐dimensional heterogeneous catalytic reaction model is applied to analyze the performance and applicability of the proposed CLC‐DR configuration using both OCs. Simulation results indicate that for both OCs, combustion efficiency reaches 1 in the fuel reactor (FR) of CLC‐DR. Additionally, results illustrate that CH4 conversion in the DR side of CLC‐DR reaches 0.7235 and 0.7213 with Fe45‐Al2O3 and Mn40/Mg–ZrO2 OCs respectively.Results show that application of CLC‐DR employing Fe45‐Al2O3 and Mn40/Mg–ZrO2 OCs produces 8611 and 8585 kmol h−1 of synthesis gas, respectively. Synthesis gases with H2/CO mole ratios of 0.9519 and 0.9612 are achieved using Fe45‐Al2O3 and Mn40/Mg–ZrO2 OCs respectively. In addition, results demonstrate that by increasing the feed temperature of CLC‐DR from 800 to 1000 K, synthesis gas production reaches 11 210 and 11 340 kmol h−1 when using Fe45‐Al2O3 and Mn40/Mg–ZrO2, respectively.Finally, thermal and molar behaviours of CLC‐DR configuration indicate that it is applicable, and by utilization of this configuration 547.8 tonne day−1 can be captured and converted to synthesis gas.