Application of Fe2O3/Al2O3 composite particles as oxygen carrier of chemical looping combustion

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) of carbonaceous compounds has been proposed, in the past decade, as an efficient method for CO2 capture without cost of extra energy penalties. The technique involves the use of a metal oxide as an oxygen carrier that transfers oxygen from combustion air to fuels. The combustion is carried out in a two-step process: in the fuel reactor, the fuel is oxidized by a metal oxide, and in the air reactor, the reduced metal is oxidized back to the original phase. The use of iron oxide as an oxygen carrier has been investigated in this article. Particles composed of 80 wt% Fe2O3, together with Al2O3 as binder, have been prepared by impregnation methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals that Fe2O3 does not interact with the Al2O3 binder after multi-cycles. The reactivity of the oxygen carrier particles has been studied in twenty-cycle reduction- oxidation tests in a thermal gravimetrical analysis (TGA) reactor. The components in the outlet gas have been analyzed. It has been observed that about 85% of CH4 converted to CO2 and H2O during most of the reduction periods. The oxygen carrier has kept quite a high reactivity in the twenty-cycle reactions. In the first twenty reaction cycles, the reaction rates became slightly higher with the number of cyclic reactions increasing, which was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test results. The SEM analysis revealed that the pore size inside the particle had been enlarged by the thermal stress during the reaction, which was favorable for diffusion of the gaseous reactants into the particles. The experimental results suggested that the Fe2O3/Al2O3 oxygen carrier was a promising candidate for a CLC system.