Two-Phase Fluidized Bed Model for Pressurized Carbonation Kinetics of Calcium Oxide

Abstract

A two-phase reactor model has been developed using a system of ordinary differential equations in MATLAB to model the carbonation reaction and therefore determine the kinetics of calcium oxide in a pressurized fluidized bed reactor as part of the calcium looping cycle. The model assumes that the particulate and bubble phases are modeled as a CSTR and a PFR, respectively. The random pore model developed by Bhatia and Perlmutter1 is incorporated into the system of equations to predict the rate of carbonation for pressures up to 5 bara total, and CO2 partial pressures up to 150 kPa. The surface rate constant and product layer diffusivity in the random pore model expression were obtained by fitting the model to experimental data for a range of pressures, CO2 concentrations, and temperatures by minimization of the residual sum of squares. The surface rate constants were found to be between 3.05 and 12.9 × 10–10 m4 mol–1 s–1 for a temperature range of 550 to 750 °C. The product layer diffusivities were found to...