Reaction Characterization of CO Chemical Looping Combustion of Spinel CuMn₂O₄ Oxygen Carriers

Chemical loop combustion (CLC) is an innovative combustion technology that inherently separates the greenhouse gas CO2 while producing no NOx emissions. In this study, a CuMn2O4 composite oxygen carrier was synthesized using the sol–gel method, and the chemical looping combustion performance of the carrier was examined in a fixed-bed reactor utilizing CO as the reducing medium, along with an assessment of its cyclic reaction stability. The rapid increase in oxygen release from CuMn2O4 between 700 and 900 °C indicates a high reaction rate within this temperature range. Furthermore, the oxygen carrier demonstrates the capacity to release a substantial amount of oxygen consistently, with the release reaching its peak at 900 °C. The oxygen release from CuMn2O4 increases significantly within the temperature range of 700–900 °C. Ten reactions involving CuMn2O4 were conducted at 900 °C in an atmosphere containing 8% CO and 3% O2. The results demonstrated an average CO2 selectivity of 96.44%, a CO conversion rate of 95.98%, and a CO2 yield of 93.70%, effectively achieving near-complete capture of CO2. The results show that CuMn2O4 can significantly improve the CO conversion activity and basically regenerate the oxygen carriers of air oxidation reduction. This study fully proves that it is feasible to achieve CO2 capture by CuMn2O4 for converter gas CO, which is the main byproduct produced by converter smelting.