A Parametric Study of Multi-Stage Chemical Looping Combustion for CO2 Capture Power Plant

Abstract

A thermodynamic model and parametric analysis of a natural gas fired power plant with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture using multi-stage chemical looping combustion (CLC) are presented. CLC is an innovative concept and an attractive option to capture CO2 with a significantly lower energy penalty than other carbon-capture technologies. The principal idea behind CLC is to split the combustion process into two separate steps (redox reactions) carried out in two separate reactors: an oxidation reaction and a reduction reaction, by introducing suitable metal oxide which acts as an oxygen-carrier that circulates between the two reactors. In this study, an Aspen Plus model was developed by employing the conservation of mass and energy for all the components of the CLC system. In the analysis, equilibrium based thermodynamic reactions with no oxygen-carrier deactivation were considered. The model was employed to investigate the effect of various key operating parameters such as air, fuel and oxygen carrier (OC) mass flow rates, operating pressure, and waste heat recovery on the performance of a natural gas fired power plant with multi-stage CLC. Results of these parameters on the plant efficiency are presented. The analysis shows efficiency gain of more than 6% over that of conventional power plant with CO2 capture technologies when CLC is integrated with the power plant.