Tech-economic assessment of second-generation CCS: Chemical looping combustion

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is regarded as the most promising technology for CO2 capture to mitigate greenhouse gas effect. In this work, a technical and economic performance of CH4-feed CLC power plant by means of utilizing promising nickel-, copper-, and ilmenite-based oxygen carriers is studied. Nickel-based CLC power plant has the highest net power efficiency of 50.14%, followed by 48.02% for ilmenite-based case and 45.59% for copper-based case. By contrast nickel-based case has a specific CO2 emission of 1.44 kg/MW h, which is dramatically lower than the referenced NGCC with CCS system (40.10 kg/MW h). The economic analyse reveal nickel-based case is most economic-benefits due to the lowest cost of electricity (COE) of 71.66€/MW h, approximately 0.32 €/MW h and 13.06 €/MW h COE reduction benefits have been increased in comparison with ilmenite-based and copper-based case, respectively. The natural gas price has an important influence on COE, as approximately 49.73%, 48.60% and 56.30% of COE enhancement is expected with the natural gas price ranging in 4–8 €/GJ for nickel-based, copper-based, and ilmenite-based case, respectively. Finally a comparison between NGCC and CLC-related power system in terms of economic performance further demonstrates the feasibility of the latter system. •Techno-economic analysis of CLC system is presented.•Effects of key parameters on economic performance of the system are investigated.•Economic feasibility of CLC system is determined by its thermodynamic performance.