Thermal behavior and kinetics analysis from liquid chemical looping gasification of cellulose with bismuth-based and antimony-based oxygen carriers

[Display omitted] •Biomass chemical looping gasification was investigated via liquid oxygen carrier.•The apparent activation energies of ICLG of CE, CE/Bi2O3 and CE/Sb2O3 were obtained.•The performances of Bi2O3 and Sb2O3 as liquid oxygen carriers were compared.•The addition of Bi2O3 was beneficial to the chemical looping gasification of cellulose. Using liquid oxygen carriers is an inventive promising alternative to solving the problems of wear and sintering caused by solid oxygen carriers in chemical looping gasification (CLG). Bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) and Antimony oxide (Sb2O3) were selected as liquid oxygen carriers, and the kinetics of liquid chemical looping gasification (LCLG) of cellulose (CE) was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis. Samples of CE-oxygen carriers were prepared with different mixing ratios, and thermogravimetric experiments were carried out at different heating rates. The apparent activation energies of CE, CE/Bi2O3-10, CE/Bi2O3-30 and CE/Bi2O3-50 were 181.93, 155.72, 179.50, and 170.47 kJ·mol−1, respectively. The apparent activation energies of CE/Sb2O3-10, CE/Sb2O3-30 and CE/Sb2O3-50 were 179.40, 152.89 and 129.55 kJ·mol−1, respectively. The results showed that Bi2O3 could significantly reduce the activation energy of CE gasification, which had better performance as a liquid oxygen carrier than Sb2O3. When the mass fraction of Bi2O3 was 10%, the lowest average activation energy was 155.72 kJ·mol−1.