Development of the calcium looping CO2 capture technology from lab to pilot scale at IFK, University of Stuttgart

Calcium Looping CO2 capture technology has made vast progress within the last 10 years and has become a viable option for efficient CO2 capture from power plant flue gases. Along with Prof. Ben Anthony many groups have contributed to the success story of Calcium Looping within Europe and worldwide. Development of Calcium Looping was initiated in the year 1999 with the process idea, and has continuously proceeded, starting from lab investigations at sorbent level, feasibility studies including process efficiency and economic analyses, process demonstration in the first electrically heated test rigs and finally making the step into pilot scale. Inspired by the sorption-enhanced reforming (SER) of biomass using limestone for in situ CO2 capture, the first work on Calcium Looping done at the Institute of Combustion and Power Plant Technology, IFK of the University of Stuttgart was in 2003. From that point IFK has been one of the groups pushing Calcium Looping from basic research towards successful process demonstration at pilot scale. This paper will give an overview over the research work carried out at IFK in the years 2003-2013 and shows the major steps of development and achievements of different research periods.