Chemical looping with copper oxide as carrier and coal as fuel

A preliminary analysis has been conducted of the performance of a Chemical Looping system with Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU) with copper oxide as the oxygen carrier and coal approximated by carbon as the fuel. The advantages of oxygen uncoupling are demonstrated by providing the energy balances, the circulation rate of oxygen carrier, the oxygen carrier mass loadings, the carbon burnout and oxygen partial pressure in the fuel reactor. Experimental data on the cycling of cuprous oxide to cupric oxide and kinetics for the oxidation and decomposition reactions of the oxides were obtained for use in the analysis. For this preliminary study unsupported oxides were utilized. The decomposition temperatures were rapid at the high temperature of 950°C selected for the fuel reactor. The oxidation kinetics peaked at about 800°C with the decrease in rate at higher temperatures, a decrease which is attributed in the literature to the temperature dependence of the diffusional resistance of the CuO layer surrounding the Cu₂O; the diffusion occurs through grain boundaries in the CuO layers and the rate of diffusion decreases as a consequence of growth of CuO grains with increasing temperature. The analysis shows the advantages of CLOU in providing rapid combustion of the carbon with carbon burnout times lower than the decomposition times of the oxygen carrier. For the full potential of CLOU to be established additional data are needed on the kinetics of supported oxides at the high temperatures (>850°C) at which oxygen is released by the CuO in the fuel reactor.