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Synthesis Gas Generation by Chemical-Looping Reforming of Biomass with Natural Copper Ore as Oxygen Carrier

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Abstract

Chemical-looping reforming (CLR) of biomass is a novel gasification technique to convert biomass into synthesis gas using active oxygen provided by oxygen carrier (OC) instead of pure oxygen. This study investigated the feasibility of CLR of sawdust using natural copper ore as OC in a thermogravimetric analyzer and a batch-operated fluidized bed reactor. It was found that natural copper ore lead to larger weight loss and rate than hematite and silica sand, which was ascribed to that copper ore has higher reactivity and thus accelerates the sawdust pyrolysis and gasification. Effect of the presence of OC particles on the biomass reforming was investigated in a batch-operated fluidized bed reactor at 800 °C. The gas yield and carbon conversion increased using copper ore compared to using silica sand. However, at the cost of synthesis gas combustion for heat, the gas lower heating value and gasification efficiency were relatively low in the presence of copper ore. At last, copper ore performed good redox ability, resistance to agglomeration/sintering, and high reactivity from XRD and SEM-EDX analysis.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by “National Natural Science Foundation of China (51390494)” and “National Key Basic Research and Development Program (2011CB707300)”. Meanwhile, the staffs from the Analytical and Testing Center and Huazhong University of Science and Technology are also appreciated for the related experimental analysis.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Lei Guo, Haibo Zhao & Chuguang Zheng

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  1. Lei Guo
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  2. Haibo Zhao
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  3. Chuguang Zheng
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Correspondence to Haibo Zhao.

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Guo, L., Zhao, H. & Zheng, C. Synthesis Gas Generation by Chemical-Looping Reforming of Biomass with Natural Copper Ore as Oxygen Carrier. Waste Biomass Valor 6, 81–89 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-014-9328-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-014-9328-1

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