Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) has unique advantages for CO2 capture. Particles (the oxygen carrier) that circulate between two fluidized beds, transfer oxygen from air to fuel. Thus, the fuel is burnt without mixing of fuel and combustion air, consequently the CO2 formed in combustion is not diluted in the nitrogen of the air. The magic advantage is that essentially pure CO2 is obtained without any costly gas separation.

This MSc project will focus on developing a low-cost oxygen carrier for biomass fuel, i.e. for negative CO2 emissions. Preliminary research shows that mixing low-cost manganese ore and limestone, can raise oxygen carrier reactivity substantially through the spontaneous formation of calcium manganate, known to be a very reactive oxygen carrier. The idea is to investigate this further in a small, continuously operating 300 W CLC reactor. In addition to a MSc thesis, we expect the work will be published in a scientific journal.