Synthesis Gas Generation by Chemical-Looping Reforming of Biomass with Natural Copper Ore as Oxygen Carrier

Chemical-looping reforming (CLR) of biomass is a novel gasification technique to convert biomass into synthesis gas using active oxygen provided by oxygen carrier (OC) instead of pure oxygen. This study investigated the feasibility of CLR of sawdust using natural copper ore as OC in a thermogravimetric analyzer and a batch-operated fluidized bed reactor. It was found that natural copper ore lead to larger weight loss and rate than hematite and silica sand, which was ascribed to that copper ore has higher reactivity and thus accelerates the sawdust pyrolysis and gasification. Effect of the presence of OC particles on the biomass reforming was investigated in a batch-operated fluidized bed reactor at 800 degrees C. The gas yield and carbon conversion increased using copper ore compared to using silica sand. However, at the cost of synthesis gas combustion for heat, the gas lower heating value and gasification efficiency were relatively low in the presence of copper ore. At last, copper ore performed good redox ability, resistance to agglomeration/sintering, and high reactivity from XRD and SEM-EDX analysis.