Comparison of a new micaceous iron oxide and ilmenite as oxygen carrier for Chemical looping combustion with respect to syngas conversion

•MIOX ME 400 is able to convert more syngas compared to ilmenite.•Activation of both natural oxygen carriers was shown.•Conversion of methane can be raised to 85–60% at 950°C with MIOX ME 400.•Whereas syngas is almost totally converted already at 900°C with MIOX ME 400. Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a promising carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. One of the challenges is to find the most suitable oxygen carrier (OC). Using solid fuels makes it important to use cheap and natural oxygen carriers, since there will probably be some loss of bed material while discharging ash from the system. Therefore ilmenite and a new micaceous iron oxide (MIOX ME 400) are compared with respect to syngas conversion in a 10kWth bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) reactor. The OC was alternatively reduced with either CO+H2 or CH4+H2 and oxidized with air at 900°C. The conversion of syngas with MIOX ME 400 is always higher (XCO, XH2>98%) than that with ilmenite. Conversion of CH4 is also better for MIOX ME 400, even though it is still low. It can be raised by increasing fuel reactor temperature from 900°C to 950°C which results in a CH4 conversion of 85–60% instead of 60–40%.