Acetic Acid Production Using Calcium Ferrite-Assisted Chemical Looping Gasification of Petroleum Coke With In Situ Sulfur Capture

Abstract

The global market size for acetic acid is expected to increase at a high compounded annual growth rate over the next few years due to an increased demand from the end-users such as the automobile, furniture, and construction industries. One of the key factors driving the acetic acid production is methanol formation, which in turn depends on syngas generation. The process simulation and reactor modeling study presented here explores the use of a novel petcoke-to-syngas process for acetic acid production where the petcoke is subjected to chemical looping gasification (CLG) using calcium ferrite (Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 ) as the oxygen carrier. The underlying thermodynamics of petcoke partial oxidation are studied through the assessment of parameters such as the syngas purity, carbon deposition, and S# (an indicator of the syngas quality) using computational simulations carried out in Aspen. The effect of natural gas and steam co-injection along with petcoke has also been studied while also focusing on regeneration of the reduced carrier using steam and CO 2 . As sulfur is an integral part of the petcoke stream, its interaction with the oxygen carrier has also been analyzed and a process configuration is reported that allows the production of a sulfur-free syngas stream. Process simulations reveal an increase in the exergy efficiency of syngas production, syngas yield per mol of carbon, and acetic acid yield per mol of carbon by 32% points, 50, and 14%, respectively, using the Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 -assisted CLG process as opposed to the conventional petcoke gasification route, thus rendering acetic acid production using the CLG route economically attractive.

Coal-Direct Chemical Looping Process with In Situ Sulfur Capture for Energy Generation Using Ca–Cu Oxygen Carriers

“…The reducer and sulfur remover (SR) reactors are modeled using a five-stage countercurrent RGIBBS model in ASPEN to simulate the countercurrent gas solid contact pattern, while a single RGIBBS model is used to simulate the combustor reactor. 25 The RGIBBS module in ASPEN works on the principle of Gibbs free energy minimization to calculate the product distribution at equilibrium, constrained to the target operating temperature and pressure. Coal and ash are modeled as nonconventional components in ASPEN.…”

“…For all the thermodynamic simulations performed, the estimation of property parameters is conducted using the Peng–Robinson method with the Boston–Mathias function, while the remaining parameters associated with the simulations are provided in the Supporting Information. The reducer and sulfur remover (SR) reactors are modeled using a five-stage countercurrent RGIBBS model in ASPEN to simulate the countercurrent gas solid contact pattern, while a single RGIBBS model is used to simulate the combustor reactor . The RGIBBS module in ASPEN works on the principle of Gibbs free energy minimization to calculate the product distribution at equilibrium, constrained to the target operating temperature and pressure.…”

Thermodynamic Evaluation of the Cross-Current Moving-Bed Chemical Looping Configuration for Efficient Conversion of Biomass to Syngas

“…Hence, without changing the reactor volume, the traditional BTS system can be easily transformed to a cross-current system to improve the syngas yield. Given the advantage of the novel cross-current system, a system-level performance assessment of the process is necessary, as showcased by previous works, − for determining the scale-up potential of the cross-current system compared to the conventional cocurrent system.…”

Enhanced methane conversion using Ni-doped calcium ferrite oxygen carriers in chemical looping partial oxidation systems with CO2 utilization

“…22,23 Due to its kinetic and thermodynamic benefits, the use of Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 for producing syngas and hydrogen by carrying out partial oxidation of various feedstocks such as biomass, coal, risk husk, coal tar vapor, microalgae and CH 4 has been reported by various research groups. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] The effect of adding dopants and supports has been investigated. Their addition to Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 has been reported to enhance the reaction rates.…”