Impact of 1% Lanthanum Dopant on Carbonaceous Fuel Redox Reactions with an Iron-Based Oxygen Carrier in Chemical Looping Processes

The cyclic redox reactivity of metal oxides plays an important role in many energy fields such as fuel cells, photocatalysis, and chemical looping. In chemical looping systems, oxygen carriers are required to have high reactivity, recyclability, and high oxygen carrying capacity. We utilize catalytic lanthanum dopants to dramatically change the reactivity with carbonaceous fuels while maintaining or even improving the recyclability of iron-based oxygen carriers. A low concentration of La dopant is applied to maintain the high oxygen carrying capacity. These results are substantiated by ab initio DFT+U and thermochemistry analysis and will have a significant impact on future chemical looping oxygen carrier design.