With
the recent advancement of the chemical looping combustion
(CLC) industry, the development of materials with high stability,
high oxidation and reduction rate, and high oxygen transport capacity
(OTC) has become a research hotspot. In this paper, the behavior of
nickel oxide (NiO) as an oxygen carrier (OC) has been analyzed using
thermogravimetric analysis. The influences of the preparation methods
and Ni composition have been evaluated to develop Ni-based carriers
with high reduction and oxidation rates over 10 redox cycles without
changes in the chemical and structural properties. It has been observed
that the carriers prepared by the ultrasound irradiation method showed
excellent stability and higher reduction and oxidation rate (less
than 1–3 min) during multiple redox cycles. However, their
OTC values were lower than those of impregnated carriers. It was found
that, in the ultrasound irradiation method, the 15NA (15 wt % Ni loading
supported with gamma alumina) OC exhibited the highest OTC (3.17%)
while 5NA (5 wt % nickel loading supported with gamma alumina) exhibited
the lowest OTC (1.34%). A similar trend was observed for the impregnated
OC, where 15NA exhibited the highest OTC value (3.67%), whereas 5NA
exhibited the lowest OTC value (1.38%). Overall, the carriers prepared
via the impregnation method possessed a high value of OTC at approximately
3.67% while the carriers prepared by ultrasound irradiation possessed
an OTC value of 3.17%. In terms of physicochemical properties, the
carriers prepared using the ultrasound irradiation approach possessed
comparatively lower oxidation and reduction temperatures, smaller
particle size, higher specific surface area, and more uniform metal
distribution on the support. These findings suggested that the Ni-based
OC prepared by ultrasound irradiation is a good candidate for CLC
reactions.