EFFECTS OF FUEL TYPE AND TEMPERATURE ON THE ATTRITION OF HEMATITE ORE FOR CHEMICAL LOOPING

摘要

Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) has garnered much attention as an alternative carbon capture process. CLC provides increased power inefficiencies while reducing the penalty for carbon capture compared to post-combustion technologies such as amine-scrubbing. The CLC process uses metal oxide, often termed as an oxygen carrier, instead of air to oxidize the fuel for combustion. CLC faces many technological hurdles including reactor design and oxygen carrier development. From an economic standpoint, CLC faces uncertainty due to the high operating cost for making up solids due to particle attrition during operation, as the oxygen carrier particles experience high mechanical, thermal, and chemical forces throughout the process. In particular, chemical stresses due to the redox cycling can exacerbate oxygen carrier degradation. The phase changes that materials undergo can cause volume expansion or shrinkage and alter the oxygen carrier structure significantly at times leading to different mechanical properties. As a result, it is important to understand the impact of chemical stress as it relates to the particle attrition of oxygen carriers.