Chemical Looping with Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU) concepts for high energy efficient power generation with near total fuel decarbonisation

Developing high energy efficient solutions with low CO2 emissions for heat and power generation sector is of main importance today. One innovative carbon capture method based on Chemical Looping with Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU) concept for power generation with near-zero CO2 emissions was evaluated in this paper. As an illustrative example, the copper-based oxygen carrier was considered for both fossil and renewable fuels conversion. The sizes of evaluated power plant concepts are 100 MW net power output. The carbon capture rate of the CLOU systems is almost total (>99%). The paper evaluates the conceptual designs of CLOU systems focusing on the assessment of mass and energy integration aspects and quantification of key techno-economic and environmental performances. The evaluated designs were simulated, the results being used to assess the overall indicators. For comparison reason, similar power plants without carbon capture and with carbon capture by gas-liquid absorption or oxy-combustion were considered as benchmarks. The assessments show that CLOU system has significant advantages (higher efficiency, lower CO2 emissions and plant complexity, better economic performances, etc.) compared to the benchmark cases without capture but also to the carbon capture cases by gas-liquid absorption or oxy-combustion.