Preparation and chemical looping combustion properties of Fe2O3/Al2O3 derived from metallurgy iron-bearing dust

The Fe2O3/Al2O3 is prepared from metallurgy iron-bearing dust in the present work, and its feasibility as an oxygen carrier (OC) for chemical looping combustion (CLC) is evaluated by using XRD, SEM-EDX, TGA and others. Experimental results show that the mass percentage of Fe2O3 and Al2O3 is 86.97% and 4.92%, respectively in the obtained Fe2O3/Al2O3 sample with specific surface areas of 9.06 cm2/g. The reaction ratio of the Fe2O3/Al2O3 reacting with pulverized coal is 44.56% in the first combustion cycle and 24.37% in the fifth cycle, which is similar to that of traditional Fe2O3/Al2O3 OC. The reason of such a decrease is discussed by means of the thermodynamic phase diagram and ascribed to the increasing agglomeration and sintering of coal ash and Fe2O3/Al2O3 particles during cycles. The results indicate that the Fe2O3/Al2O3 material derived from metallurgy iron-bearing dust is a highly reactive and competitive OC for CLC process.