Professor Ahmed Ghoniem
PI at MIT
Professor Tariq Shamim
PI at Masdar Institute
This project focuses on chemical looping combustion (CLC) as an option to capture CO2 with a significantly lower energy penalty than other existing carbon-capture technologies. Unlike in conventional combustion processes, in CLC, the fuel and oxidizer are never in contact during the "combustion" process, more properly named "conversion" process in this case. Instead, the overall fuel combustion process is split into two separate reactions performed in two separate reactors; an oxidation reaction and a reduction reaction, accomplished by introducing suitable metal oxide as an oxygen-carrier that circulates between the two reactors. The main advantage of this approach is that the separation of CO2 does not, in principle, cost additional energy. CLC also reduces the irreversibility of combustion process. Hence, CLC-based energy conversion systems could achieve high thermodynamic efficiently while capturing most or all of the CO2 emitted during combustion.
By following a multi-level approach, the project investigates the CLC concept and evaluates its feasibility. The main focus of the work is on analytical and computational investigation with experimental validation.
CLC is a developing technology and there are many technical challenges/concerns that need to be resolved before technology deployment. This project will contribute to the development of efficient and cost-effective carbon capture technologies that can be used to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants, fuel production and fuel formulation facilities using light and heavy hydrocarbon as feedback.
