Improvement of iron based oxygen carriers for chemical looping hydrogen

Decentralized hydrogen production via fixed bed chemical looping offers the opportunity for an emission free economy based on hydrogen. The cyclic process consists of the reduction of an iron based oxygen carrier with syngas from biofuels or methane at 800 °C and the following oxidation with steam to produce high purity pressurized hydrogen with efficiencies up to 80%. The alternating reduction and oxidation reactions at high temperatures lead to oxygen carrier deactivation processes due to the high material stress. An applicable oxygen carrier synthesis route has to be found that combines high cyclic stability with economic feasibility.