Reactivity stabilization and capacity study of fabricated alumina and zirconia‐supported CaO ‐based sorbents for high‐temperature CO 2 capture in a fixed‐bed reactor

Abstract Calcium looping process is a promising approach for CO 2 capture from the flue gas of fossil fuel power plants and the cement industry. Even though the advantages of calcium‐based sorbents are low cost and high uptake capacity, they suffer from low durability during cycles. Modified sorbents were fabricated by adding alumina and zirconia and the mixture of alumina and zirconia to calcium oxide via the co‐precipitation method. The performance of synthesized sorbents in terms of stability and CO 2 capture capacity were evaluated using a fixed bed reactor in various CO 2 sorption/desorption cycles. The sorbents were fabricated by a co‐precipitation methodology using 10% binders (alumina and/or silica). X‐ray diffraction (XRD), BET/BJH, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were conducted for characterization of synthesized sorbents. CaO‐10% ZrO 2 showed the best performance among the fabricated sorbents in terms of stability during 5 cycles and CO 2 capacity (14 mmol CO 2 /g sorbent). The formation of CaZrO 3 with a perovskite structure and high‐temperature resistance could be attributed to well performance of zirconia‐supported sorbent. On the other hand, no sign of aluminum zirconate formation was approved in XRD analysis for the fabricated sorbent using mixed binders of zirconia and alumina to enhance its stability during cycles.