Nonflame combustion technology （NFCT） is a harmonious energy utilization technology. There are not environmental-unfriendly gases such as NOx, CO2 discharged in the whole combustion process. Combustion processes realizes zero emission through this technology. Fe2O3 is involved as oxygen carrier, is examined thermodynamically, and the thermodynamic data of the redox reactions are calculated. Using the criteria of minimizing the Gibbs free energy, the equilibrium composition was investigated. The equilibrium analysis shows that producing complete oxidized resultants must have high molar ratio of Fe2O3/CH4. If quantity of Fe2O3 is not sufficient, more partial oxidized products such as CO, H2, even C will be produced.
The cerium iron complex oxides oxygen carrier was prepared by the co-precipitation method. The reactions between methane and lattice oxygen from the complex oxides were investigated in a fixed micro-reactor system. The reduced oxygen carder could be re-oxidized by air and its initial state could be restored. The characterizations of the oxygen carders were studied using XRD, O2-TPD, and H2-TPR. The results showed that the bulk lattice oxygen of CeO2-Fe2O3 was found to be suitable for the partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas. There were two kinds of oxygen species on the oxygen carrier： the stronger oxygen species that was responsible for the complete oxidation of methane, and the weaker oxygen species （bulk lattice oxygen） that was responsible for the selective oxidation of methane to CO and H2 at a higher temperature. Then, the lost bulk lattice oxygen could be selectively supplemented by air re-oxidation at an appropriate reaction condition. CeFeO3 appeared on the oxygen carrier after 10 successive redox cycles, however, it was not bad for the selectivity of CO and H2.
The Ce-Fe-O mixed oxide with a ratio of Ce/Fe=7:3, which was prepared by coprecipitation method and employed as oxygen carrier, for direct partial oxidation of methane to syngas in the absence of gaseous oxygen was explored. The mixed oxide was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the catalytic performances were studied in a fixed-bed quartz reactor and a thermogravimetric reactor, respectively. Approximately 99.4% H2 se...
Chemical looping combustion （CLC） of carbonaceous compounds has been proposed, in the past decade, as an efficient method for CO2 capture without cost of extra energy penalties. The technique involves the use of a metal oxide as an oxygen carrier that transfers oxygen from combustion air to fuels. The combustion is carried out in a two-step process： in the fuel reactor, the fuel is oxidized by a metal oxide, and in the air reactor, the reduced metal is oxidized back to the original phase. The use of iron oxide as an oxygen carrier has been investigated in this article. Particles composed of 80 wt% Fe2O3, together with Al2O3 as binder, have been prepared by impregnation methods. X-ray diffraction （XRD） analysis reveals that Fe2O3 does not interact with the Al2O3 binder after multi-cycles. The reactivity of the oxygen carrier particles has been studied in twenty-cycle reduction-oxidation tests in a thermal gravimetrical analysis （TGA） reactor. The components in the outlet gas have been analyzed. It has been observed that about 85% of CH4 converted to CO2 and H2O during most of the reduction periods. The oxygen carrier has kept quite a high reactivity in the twenty-cycle reactions. In the first twenty reaction cycles, the reaction rates became slightly higher with the number of cyclic reactions increasing, which was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy （SEM） test results. The SEM analysis revealed that the pore size inside the particle had been enlarged by the thermal stress during the reaction, which was favorable for diffusion of the gaseous reactants into the particles. The experimental results suggested that the Fe2O3/Al2O3 oxygen carrier was a promising candidate for a CLC system.
A series of Ce1-xFexO2 （x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1） complex oxide catalysts were prepared using the coprecipitation method. The catalysts were characterized by means of XRD and H2-TPR. The reactions between methane and lattice oxygen from the complex oxides were investigated. The characteristic results revealed that the combination of Ce and Fe oxide in the catalysts could lower the temperature necessary to reduce the cerium oxide. The catalytic activity for selective CH4 oxidation was strongly influenced by dropped Fe species. Adding the appropriate amount of Fe2O3 to CeO2 could promote the action between CH4 and CeO2. Dispersed Fe2O3 first returned to the original state and would then virtually form the Fe species on the catalyst, which could be considered as the active site for selective CH4 oxidation. The appearance of carbon formation was significant and the oxidation of carbon appeared to be the rate-determining step; the amounts of surface reducible oxygen species in CeO2 were also relevant to the activity. Among all the catalysts, Ce0.6Fe0.402 exhibited the best activity, which converted 94.52% of CH4 at 900 ℃.
