Isothermal Splitting of CO2 to CO Using Cobalt-Ferrite Redox Looping

Abstract

Abstract Rising atmospheric CO2 levels from significant imbalance between carbon emissions from fossil fuel utilization, especially for energy and chemicals, and natural carbon sequestration rates is known to drive-up the global temperatures and associated catastrophic climate changes, such as rising mean sea level, glacial melting, and extinction of ecosystems. Carbon capture and utilization techniques are necessary for transition from fossil fuel infrastructure to renewable energy resources to help delay the dangers of reaching to the point of positive feedback between carbon emissions and climate change which can drive terrestrial conditions to uninhabitable levels. CO2 captured from the atmosphere directly or from flue gases of a power plant can be recycled and transformed to CO and syngas for use as energy and value-added chemicals. Utilizing renewable energy resources to drive CO2 conversion to CO via thermochemical redox looping can provide a carbon negative renewable energy conversion pathway for sustainable energy production as well as value-added products. Substituted ferrites such as Co-ferrite, Mn-ferrite were found to be promising materials to aid the conversion of CO2 to CO at lower reduction temperatures. Furthermore, the conversion of these materials in the presence of Al2O3 provided hercynite cycling, which further lowered the reduction temperature. In this paper, Co-ferrite and Co-ferrite-alumina prepared via co-precipitation were investigated to understand their potential as oxygen carriers for CO2 conversion under isothermal redox looping. Isothermal reduction looping provided improved feasibility in redox conversion since it avoids the need for temperature swinging which improves thermal efficiency. These efforts alleviate the energy losses in heat recovery while also reducing thermal stresses on both the materials and the reactor. Lab-scale testing was carried out at 1673 K on these materials for extended periods and multiple cycles to gain insights into cyclic performance and the feasibility of sintering, which is a common issue in iron oxide-based oxygen carriers. Cobalt doping provided with lowering of reduction temperature requirement at the cost of oxidation thermodynamic spontaneity that required increased oxidation temperature. At the concentrations examined, these opposing phenomena made isothermal redox operation feasible by providing high CO yields comparable with oxygen carriers in the literature, which were operated at different temperatures for reduction and oxidation. Significantly high CO yields (∼750 µmol/g) were obtained from Co-ferrite isothermal redox looping. Co-ferrite-alumina provided lower CO yields compared with Co-ferrite. The oxygen storage was similar to those reported in the literature on isothermal H2O splitting, but with improved morphological stability at high temperature, especially compared with ferrite. This pathway of oxygen carrier development is considered suitable with further requirement in optimization for scaling of renewable CO2 conversion into valuable products.