Publication Overview
The IEAGHG High Temperature Solid Looping Cycles Network emerged from the preceding International Workshop on In-situ CO2 Removal (ISCR) and aims at bringing together researchers and developers of CO2 capture technologies that operate at high temperatures in cylindrical processes using either circulating or fixed beds of solids.
Within the last few years drawbacks of the conventional amine-based CO2 capture systems have spurred interest in solid looping processes. Since then the technology has advanced considerably and several pilot plants have been build and brought into operation, e.g the 1.7MW pilot plant at La Pereda in Spain and the 1MW pilot plant at TU Darmstadt in Germany. Progress has been made in particular in carrier/sorbent development as well as in process design and integration. In Calcium Looping, for instance, the use of spent sorbent to produce cement has been demonstrated.
Publication Summary
At this meeting further steady progress is evident in formulation and testing of sorbents, integration of both CLC and CaL processes with an extending range of industrial processes and in the emergence of encouraging first results from larger scale testing of the process in MW scale demonstration units. A better understanding of the science behind sorbent performance is needed to make the search for better materials more effective. There is also an emerging need to develop a set of credible techno-economic performance figures for the technology to justify further and potentially increasing R&D expenditures as phase in which larger demonstration units are required is entered. Finally the environmental performance of the processes needs to be assessed more rigorously especially as this may represent a considerable advantage over competing systems.