Insights into the micro-structures and reactive behaviors of coal vitrinite and inertinite macerals with CuFe2O4 in chemical looping combustion

As a carbon capture technology, chemical looping combustion (CLC) can realize efficient coal utilization, for which understanding micro-structures and reactive behaviors of coal is highly demanded. This work reveals the relative behaviors of vitrinite and inertinite macerals according to chemical bonding fracture during CuFe2O4 based CLC by thermo-gravimetric analysis and fixed bed reactor. It was found that CLC process reduces the interlayer spacing of the aromatic layers, and increases the interlayer defects of the aromatic rings and the condensation of the aromatic rings. The relative content of C-C/C-H of chars significantly reduced, and the content of C-O significantly increased during CLC. The introduction of CuFe2O4 OCs is more conducive to promote the conversion of C-C/C-H functional groups in coal to C-O. Vitrinite has higher reactivity in CLC, mainly derived from higher degree of side chain branching of alkanes and fatty hydrocarbon bonds.