The use of strontium ferrite perovskite as an oxygen carrier in the chemical looping epoxidation of ethylene

In the epoxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide using chemical looping, Ag is supported on strontium ferrite perovskite, where Ag acts as the catalyst while the perovskite acts as an oxygen carrier. This study explores how various oxygen carriers based on strontium ferrite affect chemical looping epoxidation. The structure of the oxygen carrier was varied by incorporating different ratios of two perovskite phases: cubic SrFeO3, and a layered Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) phase: Sr3Fe2O7. Maximum yield of ethylene oxide was obtained for the sample with 1:1 SrFeO3:RP ratio, leading to an increase in the yield of ethylene oxide around 4 times, compared to only SrFeO3 (i.e. 0.4 to 1.6% ethylene oxide yield). These results confirm a possibility of designing the oxygen carriers used in chemical looping epoxidation towards optimal performance. Such a design approach can be expanded to other chemical looping processes to tune the performance of oxygen carrier for the reaction in question.EPSRC and Cambridge Trust fundin