Chemical interaction of Ce-Fe mixed oxides was investigated in methane selective oxidation via methane temperature programmed reduction and methane isothermal reaction tests over Ce-Fe oxygen carriers. In methane temperature programmed reduction test, Ce-Fe oxide behaved complete oxidation at the lower temperature and selective oxidation at higher temperatures. Ce-Fe mixed oxides with the Fe content in the range of 0.1~）.5 was able to produce syngas with high selectivity in high-temperature range （800-900 ~C）, and a higher Fe amount over 0.5 seemed to depress the CO formation. In isothermal reaction, complete oxidation oc- curred at beginning following with selective oxidation later. Ce~_xFexO2~ oxygen carriers （x5_0.5） were proved to be suitable for the selective oxidation of methane. Ce-Fe mixed oxides had the well-pleasing reducibility with high oxygen releasing rate and CO selec- tivity due to the interaction between Ce and Fe species. Strong chemical interaction of Ce-Fe mixed oxides originated from both Fe＊ activated CeO2 and Ce3＋ activated iron oxides （FeOm）, and those chemical interaction greatly enhanced the oxygen mobility and selectivity.
A series of Ceo.sFeo.30Zr0.20O2 catalysts were prepared by different methods （co-precipitations method, citric acid sol-gel method, impregnation method, physical mixed method, and hydrotherrnal method） and characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, Raman spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller （BET） and H2-TPR measurements. Potential of the catalysts in the soot oxidation was evaluated in a temperature-programmed oxidation （TPO） apparatus. The results showed that all the Fe3＋ and Zr4＋ were incor- porated into ceria lattice to form a pure Ce-Fe-Zr-O solid solution for the co-precipitation sample, but two kinds of Fe phases ex- isted in the Ce-Fe-Zr-O catalysts prepared by other methods： Fe3＋ incorporated into CeO2 lattice and dispersed Fe2O3 clusters. The free Fe2O3 clusters could improve the activity of catalysts for soot oxidation comparing with the pure Ce-Fe-Zr-O solid solution owing to the synergetic effect between free Fe2O3 and surface oxygen vacancies. In addition, the activity of catalysts strongly relied on the surface reducibility of free Fe2O3 particles. Holding both abundant free Fe2O3 particles and high oxygen vacancy concentration, the hydrothermal Ce0.5Fe0.3Zr0.202 catalyst presented the lowest Ti （251℃, ignition temperature of soot oxidation） and Tm （310 ℃, maximum oxidation rate temperature） for soot combustion （with tight-contact between soot and catalysts） among the five samples. Even after aging at 800 ℃ for 10 h, the Ti and Tm were still relatively low, at 273 and 361 ℃, respectively, indicating high catalytic stability.
A series of Fe2O3/Al2O3, Fe2O3/CeO2, Ce0.7Zr0.3O2, and Fe2O3/Ce1-xZrxO2（x = 0.1–0.4） oxides was prepared and their physicochemical features were investigated by X-ray diffraction（XRD）, transmission electron microscope（TEM）, and H2-temperature-programmed reduction（H2-TPR） techniques. The gas–solid reactions between these oxides and methane for syngas generation as well as the catalytic performance for selective oxidation of carbon deposition in O2-enriched atmosphere were investigated in detail. The results show that the samples with the presence of Fe2O3show much higher activity for methane oxidation compared with the Ce0.7Zr0.3O2solid solution,while the CeO2-contained samples represent higher CO selectively in methane oxidation than the Fe2O3/Al2O3sample. This suggests that the iron species should be the active sites for methane activation, and the cerium oxides provide the oxygen source for the selective oxidation of the activated methane to syngas during the reaction between methane and Fe2O3/Ce0.7Zr0.3O2. For the oxidation process of the carbon deposition, the CeO2-containing samples show much higher CO selectivity than the Fe2O3/Al2O3sample, which indicates that the cerium species should play a very important role in catalyzing the carbon selective oxidation to CO. The presence of the Ce–Zr–O solid solution could induce the growth direction of the carbonfilament, resulting in a loose contact between the carbon filament and the catalyst. This results in abundant exposed active sites for catalyzing carbon oxidation, strongly improving the oxidation rate of the carbon deposition over this sample. In addition, the Fe2O3/Ce0.7Zr0.3O2also represents much higher selectivity（ca. 97 %） for the conversion of carbon to CO than the Fe2O3/CeO2sample, which can be attributed to the higher concentration of reduced cerium sites on this sample. The increase of the Zr content in the Fe2O3/Ce1-xZrxO2samples could improve the reactivity of the materials for methane oxidation, but it also reduces the
Chemical-looping steam methane reforming （CL-SMR） is a novel process towards the production of pure hydrogen and syngas, consisting ofa syngas production reaction and a hydrogen production reaction. Macroporous CeQ-ZrO2 oxygen carders with different pore sizes prepared by colloidal crystal templating method and characterized by techniques of scalming electron microscopy （SEM）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller （BET）, X-ray diffraction （XRD） and temperature pro- grammed reduction （H2-TPR） were tested in CL-SMR process. For comparison, nonporous CeO2-ZrO2 oxygen carrier prepared by precipitation method was also investigated. It was found that macroporous CeO2-ZrO2 oxygen carriers owned higher reducibility and reactivity in CL-SMR process than nonporous samples. For the macroporous CeO2-ZrO2 sample, the decline of pore size could im- prove the reducibility and reactivity. The macroporous sample with a pore size of 100 nm （labeled as Ce-Zr-100） showed the highest performance for the co-production of syngas and hydrogen during the successive CL-SMR redox cycles. After 10 redox cycles, it still retained good porous structure and reducibility. It was found that the porous structure could accelerate the oxygen release from bulk to surface, leading to a good mobility of oxygen and higher reducibility. In addition, it was also favorable for diffusion and penetration of methane and water steam into the sample particles to accelerate the reaction rate.
Pr0.7Zr0.3O2-δ solid solution was prepared by co-precipitation method and used as an oxygen carrier in the selective oxidation of methane to syngas(methane/air redox process). The evolution on the physicochemical properties of Pr0.7Zr0.3O2-δ during the redox process was studied by means of X-ray diffraction(XRD), H2 temperature-programmed reduction(H2-TPR), O2temperature-programmed desorption(O2-TPD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller(BET) surface area measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) technologies. The results indicated that Pr0.7Zr0.3O2-δ solid solution showed the high activity for the methane conversion to syngas with a high CO selectivity in the range of 83.5%-88.1%. Though Pr-Zr solid solution possessed high thermal stability, lattice oxygen was obviously reduced for the recycled sample due to decreased surface oxygen which promoted oxygen vacancies. The increased oxygen vacancies seemed to enhance the oxygen transfer ability in the redox process and provided sufficient oxygen for the methane selective oxidation, resulting in a satisfactory activity. The problem of hot pot was avoided by comparing fresh, aged and recycle sample in the reaction.
For calculating the thermal storage time for an annular tube with phase change material （PCM）, a novel method is proposed. The method is suitable for either low-temperature PCM or high-temperature PCM whose initial temperature is near the melting point. The deviation fit is smaller than 8% when the time is below 2x104 s. Comparison between the predictions and the reported experimental data of thermal storage time at same conditions is investigated and good agreements have been got. Based on this method, the performance of the thermal storage unit and the role of natural convection are also investigated. Results show a linear relation between the maximum amount of stored heat and thermal storage time, and their ratio increases with the height of the thermal storage unit. As the thickness of the cavity increases, natural convection plays an increasingly important role in promoting the melting behavior of paraffin. When the thickness of the cavity is small, natural convection restrains the melting behavior of paraffin.
