CCC/178

December 2010

Copyright © IEA Clean Coal Centre

ISBN 978-92-9029-498-6

Abstract

Chemical looping combustion is an indirect form of combustion in which an oxygen-containing solid material, typically a metal

oxide, supplies the oxygen to a fuel, and the spent oxygen ‘carrier’ is separately regenerated by high temperature reaction in an air

stream. As there is no direct contact between air and fuel, CO2 recovery up to very high levels is simplified. There is also potential

for higher efficiency in delivery of energy than for conventional combustion or gasification with CO2 capture. More elaborate

chemical looping systems are also a future possibility for hydrogen production. This report describes the ongoing laboratory work

to develop and test oxygen carriers and describes the continuous process development units that are being used to establish the

proof-of-concept. Power cycles that could use chemical looping are also described. The focus of the report is on coal and

coal-derived syngas, but some work with natural gas is included. The technology on coal has reached the scale of 1 MWth in the

form of a continuous plant in Germany, recently commissioned.