On the Multicycle Activity of Natural Limestone/Dolomite for Thermochemical Energy Storage of Concentrated Solar Power

Cheap, efficient, and non‐toxic energy storage technologies are urgently needed to handle the rapidly increasing penetration of intermittent renewable energies into the grid. This work explores the use of limestone and dolomite for energy storage in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants by means of the calcium looping (CaL) process based on the multicycle carbonation/calcination of CaO. An efficient integration of the CaL process into CSP plants involves high temperature carbonation and calcination at moderate temperatures in a close CO2 cycle for power generation. These conditions differ from those of the CaL process for CO2 capture, which lead to CaO deactivation as extensively reported in recent years. In contrast, we show that limestone‐ and dolomite‐derived CaO give rise to a high residual conversion at CaL–CSP conditions and in short residence times, which would facilitate the development of a competitive and clean CSP technology with permanent energy storage. Limestone goes thermal: There is an urgent need to identify inexpensive and reliable procedures to store energy from renewable sources. A possible solution would be thermochemical energy storage using concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in combination with calcium looping (CaL). We analyze the key role that CaL conditions (different to those used for CO2 capture) in the CSP–CaL process have on the properties of the materials.