Investigation into Syngas Generation from Solid Fuel Using CaSO4-based Chemical Looping Gasification Process

Chemical-looping gasification (CLG) is a novel process for syngas generation from solid fuels, sharing the same basic principles as chemical-looping combustion (CLC). It also uses oxygen carriers (mainly metal oxide and calcium sulfate) to transfer heat and oxygen to the fuel. In this paper, the primary investigation into the CLG process with CaSO4 as oxygen carrier was carried out by thermodynamic analysis and experiments in the tube reactor. Sulfur-contained gas emission was mainly H2S rather than SO2 in the CLG process, showing some different features from the CLC. The mass and heat balance of CLG processes were calculated thermodynamically to determinate the auto-thermal operating conditions with different CaSO4/C and steam/C molar ratios. It was found that the CaSO4/C molar ratio should be higher than 0.2 to reach auto-thermal balance. The effect of temperature on the reactions between oxygen carrier and coal was investigated based on Gibbs free energy minimum method and experimental results. It indicated that high temperature favored the CLG process in the fuel reactor and part of syngas was consumed to compensate for auto-thermal system.