Electric arc furnace dust as an alternative low-cost oxygen carrier for chemical looping combustion.

The relative abundance and low cost of electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) make it a viable oxygen carrier for chemical looping combustion (CLC) system. Under a reducing agent, zinc ferrite (ZnFeO) phase in EAFD releases zinc vapor in a complex gas-solid reaction. In an effort to suppress the emission of zinc vapor, the reaction mechanism of ZnFeO prepared as an oxygen carrier in a redox cycling test is primarily discussed, as well as the issue of coupling with an inert AlO support. The study focused the investigation on redox cycling behavior and CO2 conversion in ZnFeO/AlO and EAFD/AlO systems using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and fixed-bed reactor (FxBR). In a lab-scaled semi-fluidized bed reactor (semi-FzBR) of EAFD/AlO as an oxygen carrier system, a high CO gas yield approximately 0.98 after fifty redox cycles is also experimentally obtained. It can be anticipated that the use of EAFD/AlO system as an oxygen carrier in a reversible CLC process could be economical and environmentally beneficial.