Process Design and Reactor Modelling for Integrated CO2 Capture and Hydrogenation via Chemical Looping

This thesis focuses on developing and numerically analyzing chemical looping technologies and integrated processes for sustainable energy conversion and storage. Chemical looping involves the cyclic reduction and oxidation of solid oxygen carriers to facilitate reactions such as combustion, gasification and methanation, with applications in low-carbon energy generation and renewable fuel production. The research presented in this thesis is organized into three main directions: (a) the development and modelling of advanced Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) fixed-bed reactor networks for methane combustion, (b) the design and numerical investigation of an integrated chemical looping gasification and methanation process for renewable methane production and energy storage and (c) the mathematical modelling and optimization of the methanation process for synthetic natural gas (SNG) production from biomass-derived syngas. In the first part, a numerical model of a two-stage CLC reactor network is developed, where pa