Composite oxygen transport membrane reactors for oxy-fuel combustion processes

As the threat of climate change becomes paramount to our environmental security, there is a tremendous pressure to create revolutionary clean combustion technologies and methods that meet the energy demand and mitigate greenhouse gases. One solution is implementing oxygen transport membrane reactors (OTMs) in oxy-fuel combustion processes. Typically, OTMs have the ability to deliver high volumes of pure oxygen directly, reacting with incoming fuel to produce a rich exhaust that can be captured and sequestered for later use. However, OTMs could potentially react with carbon dioxide, jeopardizing its stability and novelty. In this work, an innovative and resilient composite OTM is investigated under varying gas composition, to simulate the different gas compositions that occur as a fuel stream moves through a reactor. The results show that the composite OTM was able to achieve a high oxygen permeation performance under a wide range of gas compositions.