Scale-up of the carbonate looping process to a 20 MWth pilot plant based on long-term pilot tests

Abstract

An efficient post-combustion capture technology is the carbonate looping (CaL) process reducing the amount of CO2 released by fossil fuelled power and industrial plants. Limestone based sorbents are circulated between two interconnected circulating fluidized bed (CFB) reactors. In a first reactor, the carbonator, the main part of CO2 contained in the flue gas of an upstream emission source is absorbed by CaO. The CO2 is released and the sorbent regenerated under oxy-firing conditions in a second reactor, the calciner. Numerous experimental pilot tests in semi-industrial scale proved the feasibility of this technology, whereof complementary results are published in this paper. A demonstration plant constitutes the next step of developing the CaL technology. This paper presents the development of a 20 MWth demonstration pilot considered as a milestone with regard to industrial application of the technology to answer remaining technological and economic questions. A conceptual design for this 20 MWth demonstration pilot is presented. An existing 600 MWel power station serves as a host unit for the boundary conditions of this demonstration pilot.