Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) for inherent CO2 separations—a review

This review reports recent advances on chemical-looping combustion (CLC). CLC is a promising technology for fossil fuel combustion preventing CO2 dilution with flue gases, mainly nitrogen. In CLC, the solid oxygen carrier supplies the stoichiometric oxygen needed for CO2 and water formation, and this leads to a free nitrogen mixture. As a result, the requirement of CO2 separation from flue gases, a major cost for CO2 capture, is circumvented. Furthermore, formation of NOx is also reduced. A good oxygen carrier for CLC shall readily react with the fuel gas and shall be reoxidized upon being contacted with oxygen. An oxygen carrier is typically formed by a metal oxide and an inert binder, which provide, respectively, oxygen storage, fluidizability and mechanical strength. Over the last 10 years, several research groups have been researching oxygen carriers which are both active and stable under fluidized bed conditions. While Fe, Ni, Cu, Mn and Co oxides are potential oxygen carrier materials, recent studies show that Ni is best suited for CLC. Few studies have been devoted to the solid-state kinetics of both reduction and oxidation with either a nucleation–nuclei growth or unreacted shrinking core models being considered. In order to implement CLC, two interconnected fluidized bed reactors (the fuel and air reactor) with the oxygen carrier circulated between units have been proposed. While reactor design, modeling and hydrodynamics are matters that have been analyzed by several research groups; these topics still require more attention and investigation. Preliminary economic assessments, have suggested that CLC holds great promise for combustion processes, having the potential for achieving very efficient and low cost CO2 capture. Even with these favorable prospects, commercial scale-up of CLC still depends nowadays on the availability of highly performing and stable oxygen carriers.