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.