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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received March 15, 2025
Revised June 22, 2025
Accepted July 9, 2025
Available online August 25, 2025

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Process Simulation of a Dual Fluidized Bed Ca‑Looping Biomass Gasifier with CuO/CaO for Enhanced Hydrogen Production

Han Saem Park Hyun Jun Park Ha Eun Lee Seung Seok Oh Jester Lih Jie Ling Bhanupratap Singh Solanki Hyungwoong Ahn¹ Si Hoon Lee^2†

Department of Environment and Energy, Jeonbuk National University ¹Institute for Materials and Processes, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh ²Research Institute for Energy and Mineral Resources Development, Jeonbuk National University

donald@jbnu.ac.kr

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, August 2025, 42(10), 2201-2216(16)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00521-1

Abstract

In this study, H2

production through Calcium-Looping (Ca-Looping) gasification process using biomass feedstocks, including

wood waste (WW), cow manure (CM), and biocrude (BC), was investigated. This novel system employed a dual fluidized

bed system, comprising a gasifier reactor with a mixture of CuO and CaO fluidized by steam, and a regenerative air reactor.

Hydrogen production was investigated as a function of variations in key operating parameters, including gasification

temperature (Tg), equivalence ratio (E/R), steam mass flow rate (Msteam), and CaO circulation rate (CCaO). Enhancement in

hydrogen production was not observed at temperatures above 700 °C for all feedstocks, which was confirmed to be due to

the deactivation of the carbonation reaction. An increasing CO2

volume fraction and decreasing H2

volume fraction in the

synthesis gas were observed as the E/R ratio increased. Additionally, H2

production increased continuously with higher steam

flow rate. CO2

capturing capacity, through carbonation of CaO increased with CaO circulation rates, reaching a plateau as

the circulation rate reach above 100 kg/hr. These findings highlight the potential of the biomass Ca-Looping gasification

process to produce high-purity H2

while significantly reducing CO2

emissions, positioning it as a promising pathway for

sustainable energy production.

Keywords

Biomass · Gasification · Calcium looping · Chemical looping · Hydrogen production