Kinetics for chemical looping process with fabricated Fe2O3-CuO/Al2O3 oxygen carriers

Chemical looping is a promising technology that employs oxygen carriers to supply oxygen for combustion. Fe2O3-CuO/Al2O3 were fabricated as oxygen carriers and examined for chemical looping applications with hydrogen and carbon monoxide in both thermogravimetric analyzer and fixed bed system. The mechanical strength improved greatly with calcination temperature and a higher conversion was observed with hydrogen than with carbon monoxide. Scanning electron imaging revealed sintering after reduction with carbon monoxide but not with hydrogen. Oxygen carrier conversion increased with reaction temperature for either systems while fabricated Fe2O3-CuO/Al2O3 was observed to be without noticeable loss in reactivity for experiments conducted at various temperatures for 20 redox cycles. The third-order reaction model most accurately described reduction with hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The activation energies were compared for both reduction and oxidation and reduction pathways of prepared oxygen carriers by hydrogen and carbon monoxide are proposed based on kinetic and X-ray diffraction observations. (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Fe2O3-CuO/Al2O3 oxygen carriers were fabricated and examined for chemical looping applications with hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Higher conversion was observed with hydrogen, and sintering occurred after reduction with carbon monoxide but not with hydrogen. The mechanical strength of the oxygen carriers improved with calcination temperature.