Nanosilica supported CaO: A regenerable and mechanically hard CO2 sorbent at Ca-looping conditions

•A synthetic CO2 sorbent is prepared by impregnation of calcium nitrate on a nanosilica matrix.•Sintering of the nascent CaO in the calcination stage of carbonation/calcination cycles is hindered.•CaO conversion reaches a stable value well above the residual conversion of natural limestone.•Particle fragmentation as caused by ultrasonic irradiation in a liquid dispersion is hindered.

This work presents a CO2 sorbent that may be synthesized from low-cost and widely available materials following a simple method basically consisting of impregnation of a nanostructured silica support with a saturated solution of calcium nitrate. In a first impregnation stage, the use of a stoichiometric CaO/SiO2 ratio serves to produce a calcium silicate matrix after calcination. This calcium silicate matrix acts as a thermally stable and mechanically hard support for CaO deposited on it by further impregnation. The CaO-impregnated sorbent exhibits a stable CaO conversion at Ca-looping conditions whose value depends on the CaO wt% deposited on the calcium silicate matrix, which can be increased by successive reimpregnations. A 10 wt% CaO impregnated sorbent reaches a stable conversion above 0.6 whereas the stable conversion of a 30 wt% CaO impregnated sorbent is around 0.3, which is much larger than the residual conversion of CaO derived from natural limestone (between 0.07 and 0.08). Moreover, particle size distribution measurements of samples predispersed in a liquid and subjected to high energy ultrasonic waves indicate that the CaO-impregnated sorbent has a relatively high mechanical strength as compared to limestone derived CaO.