Optimising and reducing the costs of CO2 capture technology

The CHEERS project involves a 2nd generation chemical-looping technology tested and verified at laboratory scale (up to 150 kWth). Within five years, the core technology will be developed into a 3MWth system prototype for demonstration in an operational environment. This constitutes a major step towards large-scale decarbonisation of industry, offering a considerable potential for retrofitting industrial combustion processes.

The system prototype is based on a fundamentally new fuel-conversion process synthesised from prior research and development actions over more than a decade. The system will include heat recovery steam generation with CO2 separation, which will comply with industrial standards, specifications and safety regulations. Except for CO2 compression work, the innovative concept is deemed capable of removing 96% of combustion-related CO2 while eliminating capture losses to almost zero.

Applied to industrial auxiliary systems, CHEERS aims at reducing drastically the efficiency drop lost to the CO2 capture chain. Hence, a reduction by at least 50%, from a current level of 9-10%- points, typical of absorption techniques, to less than 4%-points in power generation systems seems feasible. In steam generation systems, the gain is even larger, dropping from a level of 18-33% efficiency penalty with absorption techniques to a mere 2-3%- points with the new technology.