Abstract:
The carbothermal interaction between Cu-based oxygen carrier and ash minerals in the chemical-looping gasification of coal and biomass were investigated experimentally by considering three factors of reaction temperature, type of ash and ash content. The chemical-looping gasification was simulated by reciprocally switching the redox atmosphere of the fixed bed and the products were characterized by XRD and SEM-EDS and analyzed by thermodynamic calculation. The results show that Fe
2O
3 and Al
2O
3 in the coal ash can easily react with CuO/Cu
2O, forming complexes such as CuAl
2O
4, Cu
2Fe
2O
4 and CuFe
2O
4, which are difficult to reduce. However, CaO can alleviate the sintering of Cu-based oxygen carriers by hindering the formation of Cu-Al and Cu-Si complexes. The increase of reaction temperature promotes the solid-solid reaction of CuO with silicate minerals such as CaSiO
3 and MgSiO
3, producing CaCuSi
2O
6 and CuMgSi
2O
6 and reducing the reactivity of Cu-based oxygen carriers. With the increase of ash content, Ca
2Fe
9O
13 generated from Ca
2+ and Fe
3+ can react with SiO
2, forming three-phase eutectic CaFeSi
2O
6 with a high-melting point, which co-fuses with Cu-based oxygen carrier and covers the surface of the oxygen carrier, leading to a decrease in the oxygen release performance.