Investigation of a calcium manganite as oxygen carrier during 99 h of operation of chemical-looping combustion in a 10 kWth reactor unit

Chemical-looping with oxygen uncoupling is a technology for combustion with inherent carbon dioxide separation. A solid oxygen carrier circulates between the fuel reactor, where it provides oxygen for fuel oxidation, and the air reactor, where it is reoxidized. In this study a 10 kWth pilot reactor was used to examine a calcium manganite based oxygen carrier in continuous operation with natural gas as fuel during 99 h. The composition of the oxygen carrier can be described by the formula CaMn0.775Ti0.125Mg0.1O3-δ. The main part of the material forms a perovskite crystal structure which has oxygen releasing properties. The fuel conversion was generally above 95% and full conversion was reached for certain operating conditions. The elutriation of fines, defined as particles smaller than 45 μm, decreased over time to eventually be below detection limit. That suggested a loss of fines of less than 0.011 wt%/h, indicating a lifetime of over 9000 h. A high fuel conversion with no thermodynamic limitation, good mechanical strength, low cost and very low toxicity shows that this calcium manganite material qualifies as a very promising oxygen carrier.