Achieving net zero emissions by energy-intensive industries will require transformational changes in energy and feedstock sourcing, materials efficiency, and more circular material flows, as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. To this end, an intensified CO2 utilization process, named super-dry reforming (SDR) was developed at the LCT. SDR combines three major processes: dry reforming of methane, chemical looping redox reactions with an Fe-based oxygen carrier and calcium looping for CO2 capture. The LCT has recently installed a super-dry reforming pilot unit with a throughput on the order of 1 kg CO2/h and a materials inventory of approximately 6 kg. The unit has two reactors in parallel, which are periodically switched between the reducing and oxidizing step. This chemical looping operation allows to have continuous production of CO and inherent separation of H2O from CO and CO2. With more reactors in parallel, a permanent-periodic regime, producing a steady stream of CO can be established. Pilot-scale operation of the chemical looping reverse water-gas shift process (CL-rWGS), an integral part of the SDR process, is optimized using a combination of experimental and modelling work. The dynamic nature of the process and the intense coupling between the involved reaction steps result in a set of stiff PDEs, which are solved using an internally developed platform. In this presentation, the results of the modelling framework as well as its validation with experiments will be presented, focusing on the comparison between co- and countercurrent flow operation.
107 Tunnel Mountain Dr
Banff AB T1L 1H5
Canada