Liquid sintering behavior of Cu-based oxygen carriers for chemical looping process

Chemical looping and chemical-looping with oxygen uncoupling processes using CuO oxygen carriers are demonstrated to be novel and efficient with inherent separation of CO2. However, liquid-sintering occurred during the application of CuO is confirmed to significantly reduce its reactivity. Hence, ZrO2 was employed as support for CuO in this study to diminish agglomeration of CuO particulates during chemical looping operations. Experimental results demonstrated that CuO/ZrO2 oxygen carriers contain 40 to 60% ZrO2 exhibited adequate mechanical strength and reactivity for syngas combustion. The supplement of 1% starch as pore-forming agent to CuO/ZrO2 oxygen carriers could not only maintain the mechanical strength, but also improve the oxygen carrier conversion for CLOU process.