Innovative Oxygen Carrier Materials for Chemical-Looping Combustion

In chemical-looping combustion, the oxygen needed for combustion of fuel is provided by metal oxides called oxygen carriers, and inherent separation of CO2 is achieved without energy penalty. For gaseous fuels, such as natural gas, Ni-based oxygen carriers have generally been shown to be the most reactive. But as Ni-based materials are burdened by high costs and environmental risks with respect to toxicity, it is of high importance to find viable non-Ni alternatives. In the EU-financed project INNOCUOUS, one of the key issues is to find novel non-Ni based oxygen carriers. In this paper results from reactivity investigations of three groups of oxygen carrier materials are reported. The materials were prepared by spray-drying, and are based on 1) CuO, 2) Ca-Mn-X-O where X = Cu, Fe, Ti and Mg, and 3) Mg-Mn-O. A number of materials showed a combination of sufficient mechanical strength, high release of gas phase oxygen and high reactivity with methane, and can thus be considered viable alternatives to Ni-based materials.