(515h) Techno-Economic Evaluation of Chemical Looping Combustion for Industrial-Scale Applications

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a promising approach to capture carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion at low cost.  The CLC process relies on metal-based oxygen carrier materials to transport oxygen to the combustion zone, thereby eliminating the costs to separate nitrogen from CO_2, as in air-fired systems.  Over the last decade, several lab and pilot-scale CLC systems have been constructed and evaluated, but CLC technology has not transitioned into industrial-scale use due to uncertainties in several performance factors still under investigation.  The performance factors primarily include the reactivity, cost, and lifetime of the oxygen carrier material, which dictates the overall size and power-generating capacity of large-scale systems.  In this study, a reduced order model was developed to compare oxygen carriers, based on their reaction kinetics and thermodynamic properties, in simulated large-scale (10 and 100 MW) CLC systems.  The results of the screening model were fed into an ASPEN simulation of a plant-scale system model to indentify conceptual design configurations that have potential for commercialization.  The study compares a single industrial configuration of CLC versus a baseline industrial carbon capture and storage case by considering heat and material balances, preliminary process flow diagrams, and estimations of first-order costs. The outcome of this techno-economic evaluation will provide a basis to identify industrial end-use applications and markets that have the greatest potential to benefit from CLC technology.