Heiko Dieter

Calcium looping spent sorbent as a limestone replacement in the manufacture of portland and calcium sulfoaluminate cements.

The calcium looping (CaL) spent sorbent (i) can be a suitable limestone replacement in the production of both ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, and (ii) promotes environmental benefits in terms of reduced CO2 emission, increased energy saving and larger utilization of industrial byproducts. A sample of CaL spent sorbent, purged from a 200 kWth pilot facility, was tested as a raw material for the synthesis of two series of OPC and CSA clinkers, obtained from mixes heated in a laboratory electric oven within temperature ranges 1350°-1500 °C and 1200°-1350 °C, respectively. As OPC clinker-generating mixtures, six clay-containing binary blends were investigated, three with limestone (reference mixes) and three with the CaL spent sorbent. All of them showed similar burnability indexes. Moreover, three CSA clinker-generating blends (termed RM, MA and MB) were explored. They included, in the order: (I) limestone, bauxite and gypsum (reference mix); (II) CaL spent sorbent, bauxite and gypsum; (III) CaL spent sorbent plus anodization mud and a mixture of fluidized bed combustion (FBC) fly and bottom ashes. The maximum conversion toward 4CaO·3Al2O3·SO3, the chief CSA clinker component, was the largest for MB and almost the same for RM and MA.

Power generation based on biomass by combined fermentation and gasification – A new concept derived from experiments and modelling

A new concept is proposed for combined fermentation (two-stage high-load fermenter) and gasification (two-stage fluidised bed gasifier with CO2 separation) of sewage sludge and wood, and the subsequent utilisation of the biogenic gases in a hybrid power plant, consisting of a solid oxide fuel cell and a gas turbine. The development and optimisation of the important processes of the new concept (fermentation, gasification, utilisation) are reported in detail. For the gas production, process parameters were experimentally and numerically investigated to achieve high conversion rates of biomass. For the product gas utilisation, important combustion properties (laminar flame speed, ignition delay time) were analysed numerically to evaluate machinery operation (reliability, emissions). Furthermore, the coupling of the processes was numerically analysed and optimised by means of integration of heat and mass flows. The high, simulated electrical efficiency of 42% including the conversion of raw biomass is promising for future power generation by biomass.

Effect of SO2 and steam on CO2 capture performance of biomass-templated calcium aluminate pellets

Four types of synthetic sorbents were developed for high-temperature post-combustion calcium looping CO2 capture using Longcal limestone. Pellets were prepared with: lime and cement (LC); lime and flour (LF); lime, cement and flour (LCF); and lime, cement and flour doped with seawater (LCFSW). Flour was used as a templating material. All samples underwent 20 cycles in a TGA under two different calcination conditions. Moreover, the prepared sorbents were tested for 10 carbonation/calcination cycles in a 68 mm-internal-diameter bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) in three environments: with no sulphur and no steam; in the presence of sulphur; and with steam. When compared to limestone, all the synthetic sorbents exhibited enhanced CO2 capture performance in the BFB experiments, with the exception of the sample doped with seawater. In the BFB tests, the addition of cement binder during the pelletisation process resulted in the increase of CO2 capture capacity from 0.08 g CO2 per g sorbent (LF) to 0.15 g CO2 per g sorbent (LCF) by the 10th cycle. The CO2 uptake in the presence of SO2 dramatically declined by the 10th cycle; for example, from 0.22 g CO2 per g sorbent to 0.05 g CO2 per g sorbent in the case of the untemplated material (LC). However, as expected all samples showed improved performance in the presence of steam, and the decay of reactivity during the cycles was less pronounced. Nevertheless, in the BFB environment, the templated pellets showed poorer CO2 capture performance. This is presumably because of material loss due to attrition under the FB conditions. By contrast, the templated materials performed better than untemplated materials under TGA conditions. This indicates that the reduction of attrition is critical when employing templated materials in realistic systems with FB reactors.

Low-CO2 Cements from Fluidized Bed Process Wastes and Other Industrial By-Products

ABSTRACT According to the findings of X-ray diffraction analysis, calcium looping (CaL) spent sorbent (as a main source of CaO), anodization mud (as a source of Al2O3 and additional sulfate), and fluidized bed combustion (FBC) fly and bottom ashes, separately or in mixture (as main sources of CaSO4 plus alumina and uncarbonated lime) can replace limestone, bauxite, and gypsum as components of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) clinker-generating raw mixes. All of the hydrated CSA cements obtained from the corresponding clinkers and investigated by means of differential thermal-thermogravimetric analysis displayed a similar behavior. It has been demonstrated that the well-recognized environmentally friendly character of CSA cement manufacture can be further improved not only by using industrial wastes instead of natural materials, but also by virtue of the reduced CO2 emission and increased energy saving associated with the limestone substitution with poorly carbonated sources of lime, such as CaL spent sorbent and FBC ashes.

A Measurement Device for Online Monitoring of Total Tar in Gasification Systems

Tars produced during the thermal conversion of coal or especially biomass is one of the major obstacles for the application of gasification systems. They limit the use of the producer gas in engines or turbines or, in further processes like in methanization or conversion to other secondary fuels or chemicals, without further gas cleaning. The determination of the tar content with conventional methods is very time consuming and does not allow continuous online monitoring of the gas quality. One approach to avoid these drawbacks is an automatic system developed at the University of Stuttgart that monitors the tar concentration in the producer gas online and semicontinuous during the gasification process. The technique is based on a flame ionization detector (FID) difference measurement of the hydrocarbons in the producer gas, where the condensable hydrocarbons—the tars—are condensed on a suitable filter material. This work shows the further development of the measurement technique, the choice of a suitable tar filter material for the underlying difference measurement, and a first verification of the system with real producer gas at a 20 kWth bench scale gasifier.

Detailed Combustion and Steamside Simulation of Fossil-fuel Fired Utility Boilers

In the “DAMPFSIM” project, a detailed simulation methodology of a fossil-fuel fired utility boiler using a Computational Fluid Dynamics code for the coal combustion process coupled with a water/steam simulation code was employed. The results are useful to analyse the influence of non-uniform heating resulting from combustion properties or operational conditions on the steam generation process in order to reduce critical conditions, and to enhance the operational performance and reliability of the boiler. For both parts, combustion and steamside simulation, in-house developed codes which have been extensively validated with experimental data in many previous projects have been used.