Operation of a 25 KW_th calcium looping pilot-plant with high oxygen concentrations in the calciner

Calcium looping (CaL) is a post-combustion CO₂ capture technology that is suitable for retrofitting existing power plants. The CaL process uses limestone as a cheap and readily available CO₂ sorbent. While the technology has been widely studied, there are a few available options that could be applied to make it more economically viable. One of these is to increase the oxygen concentration in the calciner to reduce or eliminate the amount of recycled gas (CO₂, H₂O and impurities); therefore, decreasing or removing the energy necessary to heat the recycled gas stream. Moreover, there is a resulting increase in the energy input due to the change in the combustion intensity; this energy is used to enable the endothermic calcination reaction to occur in the absence of recycled flue gases. This paper presents the operation and first results of a CaL pilot plant with 100% oxygen combustion of natural gas in the calciner. The gas coming into the carbonator was a simulated flue gas from a coal-fired power plant or cement industry. Several limestone particle size distributions are also tested to further explore the effect of this parameter on the overall performance of this operating mode. The configuration of the reactor system, the operating procedures, and the results are described in detail in this paper. The reactor showed good hydrodynamic stability and stable CO₂ capture, with capture efficiencies of up to 70% with a gas mixture simulating the flue gas of a coal-fired power plant.