Abstract
The Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle coupled with chemical looping combustion (IGCC-CLC) is one of the most promising technologies that allow generation of cleaner energy from coal by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2). It is essential to compare and evaluate the performances of various oxygen carriers (OC), used in the CLC system; these are crucial for the success of IGCC-CLC technology. Research on OCs has hitherto been restricted to small laboratory and pilot scale experiments. It is therefore necessary to examine the performance of OCs in large-scale systems with more extensive analysis. This study compares the performance of five different OCs – copper, cobalt, iron, manganese and nickel oxides – for large-scale (350–400MW) IGCC-CLC processes through simulation studies. Further, the effect of three different process configurations: (i) water-cooling, (ii) air-cooling and (iii) air-cooling along with air separation unit (ASU) integration of the CLC air reactor, on the power output of IGCC-CLC processes – are also investigated. The simulation results suggest that iron-based OCs, with 34.3% net electrical efficiency and ~100% CO2 capture rate lead to the most efficient process among all the five studied OCs. A net electrical efficiency penalty of 7.1–8.1% points leads to the IGCC-CLC process being more efficient than amine based post-combustion capture technology and equally efficient to the solvent based pre-combustion capture technology. The net electrical efficiency of the IGCC-CLC process increased by 0.6–2.1% with the use of air-cooling and ASU integration, compared with the water- and air-cooling cases. This work successfully demonstrates a correlation between the reaction enthalpies of different OCs and power output, which suggests that the OCs with higher values of reaction enthalpy for oxidation (ΔHr, oxidation) with air-cooling are more valuable for the IGCC-CLC.
Highlights
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has outlined the threat from unabated anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through their adverse effects on the global climate
We focus on a systematic comparison of the performance of five most commonly used metal-based oxygen carrier (OC) for large-scale IGCC-CLC processes (Bao et al, 2014; Bhavsar et al, 2014; Jing et al, 2013; Shah et al, 2012; Song et al, 2014)
Case 3b uses an iron-based OC that has a reaction enthalpy of 275.47 kJ/ mol for oxidation with air, which is highest amongst all five OCs
Summary
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has outlined the threat from unabated anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through their adverse effects on the global climate. This leads to a requirement to minimise CO2 emissions, from fossil fuel (e.g. pulverised coal, PC) power plants (IPCC, 2013, 2014). These power plants emit sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter that cause air and water pollution, and affect public health (Kumar and Saroj, 2014). The flue gas stream from the CLC system comprises almost entirely CO2 and H2O; H2O can be separated by simple condensation, and CO2 is sent for storage and compression (Chiesa et al, 2005)
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