Chemical Looping Dry Reforming as Novel, Intensified Process for CO2 Activation

Chemical looping dry reforming (CLDR) is a novel, intensified route for CO2 activation. Two nanostructured carriers (Fe‐BHA and Fe@SiO2) are synthesized, characterized, and evaluated with regard to activity and stability in thermogravimetric and fixed‐bed CLDR reactor studies over a temperature range of ~500–800 °C. Fe‐barium hexaaluminate (Fe‐BHA) shows fast redox kinetics and stable operation over multiple CLDR cycles, while Fe@SiO2 exhibits poor activity for CO generation due to a partial loss of the core‐shell structure and formation of silicates. While the latter could be removed via a two‐step oxidation scheme, carrier utilization remained well below that of Fe‐BHA (~ 51 % versus ~ 15 %). However, the two‐step oxidation configuration turns the net endothermic CLDR process into a net exothermic process, opening up a highly efficient autothermal process alternative.