OCAC Technology in Oxy-Fuel Combustion for Carbon Capture

Abstract

AbstractOxy-fuel combustion is regarded as one of the most promising carbon capture and storage technologies to mitigate the climate change, which has been widely studied and demonstrated in academia and industry. In the oxy-fuel process, a mixture of recycled flue gas and pure O2 obtained from an air separation unit is introduced into the combustion chamber to replace air as oxidant gas. Therefore, high concentration of CO2 can be obtained in flue gas, which is suitable for the subsequent carbon storage and utilization. It also has other advantages, such as low NOx emission, easy scale-up, and applicability in existing power plant. However, the intensive energy consumption associated with the ASU is the bottleneck limiting its further commercialization. The OCAC process has a proven advantage of burning fuel at lower oxygen-fuel ratio compared to conventional FBCs. Therefore, the combination of oxy-fuel combustion and the OCAC technology, i.e. oxygen-carrier-aided oxy-fuel combustion (oxy-fuel-OCAC), can be expected to improve the utilization of O2, leading to less energy consumption from the ASU.