Superefficient gas combustion simplifies carbon capture

‘This could make power generation from natural gas both cleaner and more efficient,’ said Fanxing Li, co-author of a paper on the research and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University.

According to the University, at issue is a process called chemical looping, in which a solid, oxygen-laden material – an oxygen carrier – is put in contact with natural gas. The oxygen atoms in the oxygen carrier interact with the natural gas, causing combustion.

Previous oxygen carriers were made from a composite of inert ceramic material and metal oxides.

Li’s team has developed a new type of oxygen carrier that include a mixed ionic-electronic conductor, which effectively shuttles oxygen atoms into the natural gas very efficiently – making the chemical looping combustion process as much as 70 times faster.

This mixed conductor material is said to be held in a nanoscale matrix with an iron oxide which serves as a source of oxygen for the mixed conductor to shuttle out into the natural gas.