Treffer: Insight into characteristics of coal chemical looping gasification process by combining Aspen Plus simulation and FactSage thermodynamic calculation.

This study synergistically integrates thermodynamic simulations (FactSage) and process modeling (Aspen Plus) to investigate performance optimization mechanisms of red mud oxygen carrier during chemical looping gasification process. It addresses critical challenges in the conventional coal gasification, namely insufficient carbon conversion and excessive CO2 emission. The results show that the thermodynamic simulations based on Gibbs free energy minimization theory identified the optimal gasification conditions: a reaction temperature of 1050°C, oxygen carrier/carbon ratio of 3, and steam flow rate of 0.5 kg/h. 97.89% carbon conversion and 96.66% syngas selectivity (H2 + CO) were achieved under these conditions. Aspen Plus modeling validated these results, demonstrating 99.08% oxygen carrier regeneration efficiency and 0.112 t/kWh energy efficiency at the optimized excess air coefficient of 1.1. Fixed-bed cyclic experiments further verified the simulation accuracy, with a relative error of less than 8.5% for key metrics, though the carbon conversion decreased to 87.54% after five cycles. Microscopic analysis revealed that pore collapse and active site blockage caused by Na2O-SiO2-Al2O3 eutectic formation were primary driver of performance degradation. In conclusion, this work establishes a multi-scale modeling framework bridging microscale thermodynamic equilibria and macroscale energy consumption analysis, which may provide insights for utilization of coal in chemical looping gasification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]