Numerical Study on the Process of Chemical Looping Hydrogen Production with Multiple Circulating Fluidized Bed Reactors

Hydrogen is an attractive energy carrier due to the high conversion efficiency and low pollutant emission. Chemical looping hydrogen production (CLHP) is an available way for producing high purity hydrogen with relatively low penalty energy and CO 2 is captured simultaneously. Three reactors are usually contained for CLHP system including air reactor (AR), fuel reactor (FR) and steam reactor (SR). In current work, we focus on the performance of CLHP system, which is the basement for operation and design. Numerical simulations are carried out for analyzing the flow behavior and the numerical structure is built according to the experimental unit constructed at Southeast University, China. Results show that the operation of L-valve influences most the solid circulating rate of system and particles pass L-valve easily with large aeration rate. Mass distribution results indicate that fuel reactor has the capacity for particles storage. Increase of gas inlet rate of steam reactor leads to more particles leave steam reactor and accumulate into fuel reactor. L-valve can prevent the gas leakage between reactors and it will be adopted for reactive unit. Combining the operation of fuel reactor and L-valve, the system can reach steady state and get the regulating ability.