Study on modification of Cu-based oxygen carrier for chemical looping combustion

Abstract

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a promising technology for segregation of carbon dioxide. CLC uses a metal oxide as an oxygen carrier, which transfers oxygen from the air to the fuel avoiding direct contact between them, thus separating the carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Cu-based oxygen carriers are excellent mediums due to high reactivity, environmental friendliness, and favorable thermodynamics. However, there are agglomeration issues due to low melting point of Cu. To solve this issue, a new preparation method as well as a dispersion reagent and a thermal durability-enhanced reagent were applied simultaneously to the oxygen carrier. The carriers were synthesized using both wet and dry impregnation methods. Based on the initial oxygen loading capability tests, the dry impregnation method received additional investigation. The characterizations of the oxygen carriers were evaluated using thermogravimetric analyzer (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and surface area analyzer. TG results demonstrate that the enhanced dry impregnation was an effective preparation method, where the mass loss of the oxygen carrier was typically 3.4 %, correlating to almost 17 % loaded CuO. XRD results indicate a new phase, CuAl2O4 spinel, formed after the first few redox cycles, which is responsible for promoting the thermal stability of the oxygen carriers. SEM results show that the addition of the dispersants decreased the agglomeration and the enhanced reagent chemicals greatly improved the strength of the carriers. However, the surface area of the oxygen carriers decreased with the addition of the additives. In addition, with the increasing redox cycles, the surface area also decreased while the pore size increased, indicating that small pores were crushed, but the reactivity of the oxygen carriers did not decrease. In conclusion, the oxygen carriers produced in this manner are suitable for multi-cycle tests, and a major hurdle toward reducing greenhouse gases has been achieved.