BIOMASS CHEMICAL LOOPING COMBUSTION: ADVANCED COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGY FOR LOW COST CO2 STORAGE AND NOX FREE BIOENERGY GENERATION

摘要

In October 2014 the EU Council formally agreed on a 40% GHG emission reduction target for 2030.rnThis national binding target would force EU Member State to develop specific strategies and new policy measures. Itrnis general consensus that energy and transport sectors are major contributors to the global CO_2 emissions registered inrnEU and worldwide, to this end, much more should be done to support biobased power generation at large scale, alsornforcing the introduction of CO_2 capture and storage and for GHG emission reduction, by introducing newrntechnologies and improve national incentive schemes. One of the most interesting practices is represented by carbonrncapture, storage (CCS) and reutilisation (CCU) technologies; unfortunately, due to the high cost of CO_2 separationrnand the lack of incentives available, CCS is not yet economically viable for conventional mid-large scale powerrnplants. At the same time, CO_2 capture represents the key for the future sustainable development of bio-energy sector.rnScope of this paper is to present the huge potentials of chemical looping combustion (CLC), a disruptive sustainablerncombustion technology, which has been investigated in the last 10 years mainly for fossil fuels, which isrndemonstrating to be very promising for bioenergy generation. Chemical Looping Combustion is an innovativerncombustion technology where the fuel does not get in contact with combustion air. The necessary oxygen for thernoxidation reaction is transported from the air reactor two the fuel reactor via a solid oxygen carrier, consisting mainlyrnin a wide range of metal oxides, avoiding the energy demanding gas-gas separation step inherently. Furthermore, thisrntechnology allows energy generation with no-Nox formation and producing almost pure CO_2 and steam, facilitatingrnthe Carbon capture and thus largely improving the overall sustainability of the combustion process. The applicationrnof Biomass as fuel is not yet developed, but thanks to the specific properties of biomass feedstock, the Biomassrnchemical looping combustion presents valuable aspects both in terms of environmental sustainability and technoeconomicrnfeasibility. EUBIA, in cooperation with industries and universities, is working to bring this technology tornindustrial scale, with the aim to move European bioenergy sector towards a cleaner future development.