Chemical Looping Air Separation Using a Perovskite-Based Oxygen Sorbent: System Design and Process Analysis

Oxygen is a critical industrial gas whose global market is projected to reach $48 billion/year within this decade. However, oxygen production is highly energy-intensive because of the limited efficiency of the commercial cryogenic air separation technology. The present study systematically investigated a chemical looping air separation (CLAS) approach as an alternative to cryogenic distillation. In particular, a Sr0.8Ca0.2Fe0.4Co0.6O3−δ (SCFC) oxygen sorbent was used as the basis for both experimental and simulation studies. To demonstrate the sorbent robustness, experimental studies were carried out over 10,000 redox cycles in a bench-scale testbed. Excellent sorbent stability and >90% oxygen purity were achieved using steam as the purge gas. Oxygen purity can be further increased to >95% by optimizing the operating conditions and pressure swing absorption cycle structure. Based on the experimental results, a CLAS system design and a process model were established. The process model estimates a base case CLAS energy consumption of 0.66 MJ/kg O2. This represents a 15% decrease compared to cryogenic air separation (0.78 MJ/kg O2). It is noted that most of the thermal energy consumed by CLAS is at relatively low temperatures (∼120 °C). When accounting for the quality of this low-grade heat, an energy consumption as low as 0.40 MJ/kg O2 can be anticipated for a practical system. Sensitivity analysis was also performed on the various CLAS operational and design parameters such as reactor sizes, pressure drop, thermodynamic driving forces, oxygen uptake and release rates, heat loss, and the energy consumption for steam generation. It was determined that CLAS has excellent potential to be an efficient oxygen production technology. This study also highlights the importance of developing advanced sorbents with suitable redox thermodynamics and fast redox kinetics for improved efficiency and smaller reactor sizes.