Capabilities

What the group can do

Few groups can follow a material from a 12 MW boiler to the electron microscope. These are the facilities and methods behind the work.

Large-scale facilities

Research gasifier and 12 MW boiler at Chalmers: Bed-material and ash studies under real operating conditions, from 5 to more than 300 hours of exposure in the Chalmers 12 MW circulating fluidized-bed boiler and the 2–4 MW research gasifier, connected to the GoBiGas experience.
100 kW chemical-looping combustor: Interconnected fluidized beds for testing oxygen carriers such as ilmenite with solid fuels, used in the chemical-looping work.

Laboratory fluidized-bed reactorsPlaceholder: Lab-scale reactors in which ash model compounds (for example K₂CO₃ or KH₂PO₄) are added to oxygen carriers while fuel conversion and fluidization are monitored.
Corrosion exposures, including gaseous alkaliPlaceholder: Exposures to gaseous Na₂SO₄ and KOH(g) that imitate the environment in boilers and chemical-looping air reactors.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)Placeholder: Cross-sections of oxide scales, deposits and bed particles at micrometre to nanometre scale, with elemental mapping to follow how K, Ca, Fe and Ti move.
X-ray diffraction (XRD)Placeholder: Phase identification in corrosion products, ash layers and bed materials, for example KTi₈O₁₆ in potassium-loaded ilmenite.
Thermodynamic modelling: Equilibrium calculations used alongside microscopy to propose mechanisms for ash–bed material interaction.