Methane-Assisted Iron Oxides Chemical Looping in a Solar Concentrator: A Real Case Study

Recent interest in hydrogen as an alternative fuel for lowering carbon emissions is funding the exploration of new ways to cleanly produce this molecule. Iron oxides can be used within a process of chemical looping. More specifically, they can lose oxygens at extremely high temperature in an inert atmosphere. An alumina receiver could not stand the extreme thermal stress, while steel (AISI 316 and Inconel Hastelloy c-276) lasted enough for the reaction to start, even if at the end of the process the receiver melted. Operating at a temperature above 1000 K helped the reaction switch from methane chemical looping combustion to chemical looping reforming, thus favouring H2 and CO yields. The gas flow outlet from the reactor reached a percentage up to 45% of H2 and 10% of CO. Carbon dioxide instead reached very low concentrations. While CO and CO2 reached a peak at the beginning of the experiment and then decreased, H2 was oscillating around a stable value. Unreacted methane was detected. The temperatures recorded in the reactor and the gas mixture obtained were used to validate a multiphysical model. The heat transfer and the chemistry of the experiment were simulated.