Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.55, No.22, 6501-6505, 2016
SrCoxFe1-xO3-delta Oxygen Sorbent Usable for High-Temperature Pressure-Swing Adsorption Process Operating at Approximately 300 degrees C
Oxygen sorption/desorption properties of SrCoxFe1-xO3-delta were examined as an oxygen sorbent for a high-temperature pressure-swing adsorption (HT-PSA) process. Perovskite-type structure of the SrCoxFe1-xO3-delta powder samples was observed in the composition range of 0 <= x <= 0.85, by using XRD measurements. A temperature-programmed-desorption (TPD) measurement revealed that the oxygen desorption temperature in N-2 for the perovskite-type SrCoxFe1-xO3-delta samples was lowered with increasing x. Consequently, the oxygen desorption temperature of the SrCo0.85Fe0.15O3-delta sample exhibited around 300 degrees C, which was the lowest of those of the examined samples. A high-temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) measurement suggested that the oxygen desorption of SrCo0.85Fe0.15O3-delta in N-2 occurred, accompanying the phase transition from perovskite-type structure to brownmillerite structure. Isothermal oxygen sorption/desorption behavior of the SrCoxFe1-xO3-delta samples was examined by means of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). As a result, it was confirmed that the amount of sorbed oxygen for the SrCo0.85Fe0.15O3-delta sample gave 11.7 cm(3) g(-1) at 300 degrees C, which was larger than that (8.6 cm(3) g(-1)) for a benchmark oxygen sorbent (La0.1Sr0.9Co0.9Fe0.1O3-delta). In order to obtain oxygen-enriched air by using the SrCo0.85Fe0.15O3-delta pellet sample as the oxygen sorbent, the oxygen separation from synthetic air was carried out by using a small-scale PSA apparatus equipped with a vacuum pump. It was confirmed that the 45 vol % oxygen-enriched air was obtained even at 300 degrees C, by using this apparatus.