Phase reconstitution and reaction performance of oxygen carrier prepared from copper slag

Copper slag contains a large variety of resources that can be used, and is a kind of ‘artificial ore’. This study proposed that the abundant metal oxides in copper slag can be used as oxygen carriers with high added value that can be applied to chemical looping combustion technology. The structure of oxides in copper slag can be transformed by copper concentrate to improve its oxygen-carrying and oxygen-releasing properties. Based on this, Cu–Fe composite oxygen carriers were prepared from copper slag in this paper. It is found that heating rate has a certain effect on the phase formation of oxygen carriers during preparation. Under experimental conditions, a heating rate of 2 °C min −1 is more suitable for preparing oxygen carriers. In addition, it is found that the composite oxygen carrier generated by the mixed calcination of copper slag and copper concentrate has a synergistic effect with CuFe 2 O 4 phase. Oxygen decoupling and oxygen transport capacity and reaction activity were all improved.