The EU aims at becoming a climate neutral region by 2050. This means a transition from a carbon-based economy to a hydrogen-based economy. In the short-term, this is not possible in the aviation sector. Therefore, the best solution for this sector is bio-kerosene. In this work, a new Chemical Looping process (CO2SPLIT) is proposed to obtain CO from CO2 and green H2 as a route for the production of aviation biofuels through the Fischer Tropsch process. The development of suitable oxygen carriers (OCs) is one of the key aspects for the CO2SPLIT process. This OC must exhibit good mechanical resistance, high reactivity and conversion, and low tendency to agglomeration. Preliminary studies show that OCs based on Fe2O3 are the most promising materials. Several Fe-based minerals were subjected to reduction (H2) - oxidation (CO2-air) cycles in a batch fluidized bed (bFB) reactor, but they agglomerated after a few redox cycles. Therefore, new materials based on mixtures of Fe2O3 and other oxides (ZrO2, MgO, SiO2, TiO2 and MgAl2O4) were synthetized. After a screening process that evaluated the reactivity and the crushing strength of the OCs, the most promising candidates were selected. Next, these candidates were tested in the bFB reactor to analyze their tendency to agglomeration and CO production capacity. Finally, three OCs were proposed to perform the proof-of-concept of the CO2SPLIT process in a continuous unit composed of three FB reactors (fuel reactor, FR; splitting reactor, SR; air reactor, AR) recently built at the ICB-CSIC.
107 Tunnel Mountain Dr
Banff AB T1L 1H5
Canada