Climate change is becoming more severe than ever in human history and the emission of green house gas urgently needs to be reduced while global energy consumption remains booming. Large-scale application of clean fossil fuel combustion shall be considered as a priority for its economical advantages as well as reliability in meeting global energy needs. Oxygen-fired pressurized fluidized bed combustor technology with downstream carbon capture and sequestration is considered a key approach to clean coal combustion. In such technology, the fluidized bed combustor operates at elevated pressures and houses an in-bed heat exchanger tube bundle. It is essential to understand the rate of heat transfer between the immersed heat exchange surface and the fluidized bed as it is a key parameter in heat exchanger design. The goal of this work was to investigate the impact of pressure and presence of fine particles (i.e., surrogate for pulverized fuel) on the overall tube-to-bed heat transfer coefficient. Experiments were conducted in a pilot-scale fluidized bed with an inner diameter of 0.15 m under cold flow conditions. A tube bundle consisting of five horizontal staggered rows was completely submerged in the bed. One of the tubes was replaced by a heating cartridge housed in a hollowed copper rod. Five thermocouples distributed at 45º intervals along the copper rod circumference measured the surface temperature and ensured that local effects were included. The bed material was large glass beads of 1.0 mm in diameter while the fines were glass beads of 60 µm in diameter and thus susceptible to entrainment. The fine particles were continuously fed to the fluidized bed and then captured downstream by a filter system. Fluidization was conducted at 101, 600 and 1200 kPa with excess gas velocities (Ug - Umf) of 0.21, 0.29 and 0.51 m/s. Fine particle feed rates were 0, 9.5 and 14.4 kg/h. Two heating rod positions (2nd row and 4th row) were studies. Overall, the heat transfer coefficient approximately doubled when pressure was increased from 101 to 1200 kPa. At atmospheric conditions, where the slug flow regime occurred, the maximum heat transfer coefficient was at the bottom of the rod, while it moved to the side of the rod at high pressures where the bubbling regime occurred. As the heating rod moving from 2nd row to the 4th row, the averaged heat transfer coefficient increased by respectively 18%, 9% and 6% at 101, 600 and 1200 kPa. The addition of fine particles decreased the average heat transfer coefficient by 10 to 20 W/m2 K where the time – averaged heat transfer coefficient was approximately 220 and 450 W/m2K at 101 kPa and 1200 kPa respectively. There was no effect on the angular profile across the tube surface. The results showed that average heat transfer coefficients matched the correlation developed by Molerus et al. (1995) within a 5% difference across all conditions when fines were not present.

The new Canadian laws on CO2 emissions aim to lower the emissions of coal-fired power plants down to those of natural gas combined cycle units: 420 kg CO2/MWeh. In order to meet these requirements, calcium looping and two process variants are investigated through process simulations using Aspen Plus V8.2. The combination of calcium looping and chemical looping combustion, replacing the required air separation unit, is a way to reduce the energy penalty of the capture process. The addition of copper as an oxygen carrier in two different process configurations is compared to calcium looping and shown to reduce the efficiency penalty from 7.8% to 4.5% points but at the price of circulations rates up to about 3800 kg/s. The other improvement path studied is the implementation of calcium looping to a pressurized fluidized bed combustion unit. The pressurized carbonator acts as a reheater for the gas turbine and operating the carbonator at temperatures up to 798°C results in a reduction of the energy penalty from 5.1% to 3.1% points.

This thesis analyses two strategies for decreasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: to capture and store CO2, and to increase the use of biomass. First, two concepts for CO2 capture with low capture penalties are evaluated. The concepts are an integrated gasification combined cycle where the oxygen is supplied by a membrane reactor, and a hybrid cycle where the CO2 is captured at elevated pressure. Although the cycles have comparatively high efficiencies and low penalties, they illustrate the inevitable fact that capturing CO2 will always induce significant efficiency penalties. Other strategies are also needed if CO2 emissions are to be forcefully decreased. An alternative is increased use of biomass, which partially could be used for production of motor fuels (biofuels). This work examines arguments for directing biomass to the transport sector, analyses how biofuels (and also some other means) may be used to reduce CO2 emissions and increase security of motor fuel supply. The thesis also explores the possibility of reducing CO2 emissions by comparatively easy and cost-efficient CO2 capture from concentrated CO2 streams available in some types of biofuel plants. Many conclusions of the thesis could be associated with either of three meanings of the word sense: First, there is reason in biofuel production – since it e.g. reduces oil dependence. From a climate change mitigation perspective, however, motor fuel production is often a CO2-inefficient use of biomass, but the thesis explores how biofuels’ climate change mitigation effects may be increased by introducing low-cost CO2 capture. Second, the Swedish promotion of biofuels appears to have been governed more by a feeling for attaining other goals than striving for curbing climate change. Third, it seems to have been the prevalent opinion among politicians that the advantages of biofuels – among them their climate change mitigation benefits – are far greater than the disadvantages and that they should be promoted. Another conclusion of the thesis is that biofuels alone are not enough to drastically decrease transport CO2 emissions; a variety of measures are needed such as fuels from renewable electricity and improvements of vehicle fuel economy. / QC 20100823