High-efficiency and pollution-controlling in-situ gasification chemical looping combustion system by using CO2 instead of steam as gasification agent

Using CO₂ as gasification agent instead of steam in in-situ coal gasification chemical looping combustion (iG-CLC) power plant can eliminate energy consumption for steam generation, thus obtaining higher system efficiency. In this work, a comparative study of iG-CLC power plant using steam and CO₂ as gasification agent is concentrated on. The effects of steam to carbon ratio (S/C) and CO₂ to carbon ratio (CO₂/C) on the fuel reactor temperature, char conversion, syngas composition and CO₂ capture efficiency are separately investigated. An equilibrium carbon conversion of 88.9% is achieved in steam-based case as S/C ratio increases from 0.7 to 1.1, whereas a maximum conversion of 84.2% is obtained in CO₂-based case with CO₂/C ranging from 0.7 to 1.1. Furthermore the effects of oxygen carrier to fuel ratio (φ) on system performances are investigated. Increasing φ from 1.0 to 1.4 helps to achieve char conversion from 75.9% to 88.9% in steam-based case, by contrast the char conversion can achieve 66.3%-84.2% in CO₂-based case within the same φ range. In terms of iG-CLC power plant, recycling partial CO₂ to the fuel reactor improves the overall performance. Approximately 3.9% of net power efficiency are increased in CO₂-based plant, from steam-based plant. Higher CO₂ capture efficiency and lower CO₂ emission rate are observed in CO₂-gasified iG-CLC power plant, expecting to be 90.63% and 85.18 kg·MW^-1·h^-1, respectively.