Next Scale Chemical Looping Combustion: process Integration and Part Load Investigations for a 10MW Demonstration Unit

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a second generation carbon capture process and is discussed as a potential breakthrough technology with respect to CO2 avoidance costs. The potential of CLC has already been successfully demonstrated at scales up to 140 kW power input, using gaseous fuels. The next stage of process evolution is the development of a CLC demonstration plant at industrial scale, to gain sufficient confidence in the technology for further up-scaling. In this work, the integration of a next scale CLC demonstration plant at 10MW fuel power input into a steam generating system of a commercial natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant with supplementary firing is investigated. The attached CLC demonstration plant is designed to substitute the energy input of the supplementary firing which in turn can easily compensate fluctuation from demonstration plant operation with very little response time or even increase the overall power output in parallel operation with the CLC plant. Such a system exhibits the advantage that power output from the CLC unit would not contribute to the CO2 footprint of the site, thus improving the CO2 output balance. Demonstration plant operation including part load and control behavior is investigated by detailed mass and energy balance investigations. This work can be used as a basis for detailed engineering of a next scale 10MW chemical looping combustion demonstration unit.