The effect of oxygen carrier content and temperature on chemical looping gasification of microalgae for syngas production

The study of the effect of oxygen carrier content and temperature on chemical looping gasification (CLG) of Chlorella vulgaris was carried out in a fixed bed reactor. In order to obtain the characterization and optimal conditions of CLG for syngas production, this paper analyzed the product fractional yields, gaseous yields, conversion efficiency, SEM, XRD and composition analysis of oxygen carriers. The results indicated that CLG had a greater performance on gasification characteristics. When O/C increased from 0.5 to 3.0, gas yield, CO₂ yield and carbon conversion efficiency increased gradually, but LHV, H₂ and CH₄ yields decreased. Meanwhile, CO yield and gasification efficiency increased firstly and then decreased. Oxygen carrier Fe₂O₃ exhibited the characteristics of step-wise reduction (Fe₂O₃ → Fe₃O₄ → FeO) in CLG process. More FeO were generated at O/C of 0.5 and then caused serious sintering and agglomeration. High temperature was helpful to improve gas yield, carbon conversion efficiency and gasification efficiency. However, higher temperature would cause sintering and then weaken the activity of oxygen carrier. Moreover, under the experimental condition, O/C of 1.0 and 800 °C were the optimal parameters to obtain a high conversion efficiency of biomass, high products yield, good LHV and great reducibility of oxygen carrier.