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Chemical Looping Partial Oxidation and Hydrogen Production: Process Simulation, Exergy Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment

Kong, Fanhe
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587591727870495

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Chemical Engineering.
Despite the rapid development of renewable energy technologies, fossil fuels still account for the majority of the energy consumed by human activities. The modern society is faced with two concerns raised by the massive consumption of fossil fuels, including the potential shortage and exhaustion of fossil fuels in the future due to their non-renewable nature, and the emissions of CO2 and other pollutants associated with fossil fuel combustion and conversion processes. To address these challenges, it is essential to simultaneously improve the energy efficiency and to incorporate CO2 capture and pollution abatement strategies into these energy conversion processes. However, conventional CO2 capture technologies are usually energy-intensive, which further lowers the energy efficiency of the overall systems and aggravates the upcoming energy shortage concern. To address these issues, it is urgent for novel technologies that can perform CO2 capture while maintaining high energy efficiency to be developed and implemented. Besides, efficient utilization of renewable fuels such as biogas as substitutes for fossil fuels also requires considerable research efforts. Chemical looping provides a novel and versatile technology platform for fossil and renewable energy conversions. Chemical looping achieves in situ CO2 separation and capture without adding extra CO2 capture units. As a result, the energy efficiency of chemical looping processes with near complete CO2 capture is comparable to conventional systems without CO2 capture. Chemical looping technology is not only applicable to electricity production, but also to chemical synthesis and H2 production, with more intensified process schematics and higher energy efficiency than conventional systems. This dissertation encompasses the studies on the utilization of chemical looping technology for chemicals and H2 production and electricity generation from a process system perspective. Process simulation is conducted on five chemical looping system configurations, including natural gas to dimethyl ether conversion, coal to dimethyl ether conversion, natural gas to H2 conversion, coal to H2 to electricity conversion, and biogas to H2 conversion. The mass and heat balances are calculated and autothermal operations are established for each process. The energy efficiency, including cold gas efficiency, effective thermal efficiency, and net plant efficiency, are compared between chemical looping processes and conventional systems to quantify the benefits of utilizing chemical looping technology for fossil and renewable energy conversions. To view the benefits of chemical looping technology from a different perspective, exergy analysis is conducted on two of the five studied systems. Exergy is defined as the maximum work that can be derived during a process that brings a system into equilibrium with its environment. Exergy analysis pinpoints the locations of irreversibility and exergy destruction within a process system, hence providing a clearer view of the fundamental reasons for chemical looping to be more energy efficient than conventional processes. Finally, a life cycle assessment is conducted on the chemical looping natural gas to hydrogen process, and the results are compared to conventional steam methane reforming systems with and without CO2 capture. The life cycle assessment tracks the greenhouse gas emissions of the process from a cradle-to-grave viewpoint and hence presents a more holistic picture of its environmental impacts. The life cycle assessment results provide new insights into optimizing the performance and reducing the environmental impacts of chemical looping technologies.
Liang-Shih Fan (Advisor)
Isamu Kusaka (Committee Member)
Li-Chiang Lin (Committee Member)
Derek Hansford (Committee Member)
338 p.
Chemical Engineering
energy; carbon capture; chemical looping; process simulation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kong, F. (2020). Chemical Looping Partial Oxidation and Hydrogen Production: Process Simulation, Exergy Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587591727870495

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kong, Fanhe. Chemical Looping Partial Oxidation and Hydrogen Production: Process Simulation, Exergy Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment. 2020. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587591727870495.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kong, Fanhe. "Chemical Looping Partial Oxidation and Hydrogen Production: Process Simulation, Exergy Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587591727870495

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1587591727870495
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.