Experimental and numerical investigation of chemical-loop steam methane reforming on monolithic BaCoO 3 /CeO 2 oxygen

Chemical looping steam methane reforming (CL-SMR) is a promising approach to co-production of syngas and hydrogen. As the CL-SMR process relies on the redox reaction of the oxygen carriers, the reactivity of oxygen carriers is crucial in the performance of CL-SMR. In this study, a monolithic BaCoO3/CeO2 oxygen carrier was synthesized, and the reaction performance was evaluated in CL-SMR. The kinetic parameters were determined based on Sestak-Berggren model, an unsteady-state CFD model was established to predict the dynamic reaction processes in three reaction stages of CL-SMR. The result suggests that the flow rate of inlet gas in reaction stages could affect the mass transfer during gas-solid reactions, and then change the evolution and distribution of reaction rate in monolithic oxygen carrier. Increasing the flow rate could improve the uniformity of reaction rate distribution and decrease the time consumption for cyclic process, but decreased the concentration of gas productions and increased the burden of gas product separation at the same time. Among three reaction stages, the conversion of oxygen carrier was accelerated with the increase of temperature, and the varied half-life time of conversions suggested that the reactivity in RS stage is intense and the reactivity in AC stage is mild.