Synthesis and test of sorbents based on calcium aluminates for SE-SR

• Synthesis strategy of CaO incorporation into calcium aluminates was approached.
• Three innovative sorbents (M1, M2, M3) were synthesized and characterized.
• Sorption capacity of developed sorbents was evaluated in multi-cycle processes.
• M3 sorbent showed best performance, much higher than conventional CaO ones.
• M3 sorbent functionality in SE-SR process was verified.

Greenhouse gases emission of power generation plants will be continuously tightened to achieve European targets in terms of CO2 emissions. In particular, the switching to a sustainable power generation using fossil fuels will be strongly encouraged in the future. In this context, sorption-enhanced steam reforming (SE-SR) is a promising process because it can be implemented as a CCS pre-combustion methodology. The purpose of this study is to develop and test innovative materials in order to overcome main limitations of standard CaO sorbent, usually used in the SE-SR process. The investigated innovative sorbents are based on incorporation of CaO particles into inert materials which significantly reduce the performance degradation. In particular, sorbent materials based on calcium aluminates were considered, investigating different techniques of synthesis. All synthesized materials were packed, together with the catalyst, in a fixed bed reactor and tested in sorption/regeneration cycles. Significant improvements were obtained respect to standard CaO regarding sorption capacity stability exhibited by the sorbent.