Solid Circulation Study in a 1.5 MWthCold Flow Model of Chemical Looping Combustion

Solid circulation in chemical looping combustion (CLC) is very important and affects the mass and heat balance and autothermal operation of a CLC system. A key task in developing CLC technology is to control the solid circulation. In this work, the solid circulation characteristic of a 1.5 MWthCLC cold flow model is reported. The solid circulation between the fuel reactor and the simplified air reactor riser is controlled by the overflow method. Three kinds of quartz sands are selected as fluidized particles, and their median particle diameters are 392, 249, and 122 μm, respectively. A reasonable pressure profile is obtained in the 1.5 MWthCLC cold flow model. The effects of operational parameters, including the fuel reactor gas velocity, loop seal gas velocity, simplified riser gas velocity, particle size, and static bed height, on the solid circulation and hydrodynamic characteristics are measured and analyzed. The maximum solid circulation rate can approach 130 kg/(m2·s), and this value satisfies the requirements of mass and heat balance in the CLC system. The static bed height in the fuel reactor should be higher than the overflow port to prevent it from becoming a constraint factor on the solid circulation rate. An overflow model is developed to predict the solid circulation rate, and the relative errors between the predicted result and the experimental data are within 25%.