On the ensemble requirement of fully selective chemical looping methane partial oxidation over La-Fe-based perovskites

Abstract

The dynamic nature of active sites on La-Fe-based perovskites in chemical looping methane oxidation has been studied. According to experimental observations, the reduction of the oxygen carrier is divided into three stages occurring at different active ensembles where the Fe cations are in different coordination environments. The Mars van Krevelen mechanism formulated by microkinetic analysis describes well the effect of oxygen vacancy on the catalytic performance of LaFeO3. CO2 is not produced by CO oxidation but rather is a primary product of methane oxidation, and the presence of surface oxygen vacancies would dramatically increase the overall energy barrier for total combustion, thus decreasing the selectivity toward CO2. Hence, the Fe coordination environment (and hence the oxygen vacancy concentration) is the key parameter governing the catalyst selectivity, in the sense that methane oxidation can vary from total combustion on the O-rich surface to fully selective partial oxidation on the O-deficient surface.