A Novel Solar-Hybrid Gas Turbine Combined Cycle With Inherent CO2 Separation Using Chemical-Looping Combustion by Solar Heat Source

Abstract

In this paper we propose a novel CO2-recovering hybrid solar-fossil combined cycle with the integration of methane-fueled chemical-looping combustion, and investigate the system with the aid of the Energy-Utilization Diagram (EUD). Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) consists of two successive reactions: first, methane fuel is oxidized by metal oxide(NiO)as an oxygen carrier (reduction of metal oxide); and second, the reduced metal (Ni) is successively oxidized by combustion air (the oxidation of metal). The oxidation of methane with NiO requires a relative low-grade thermal energy at 300°C–500°C. Then concentrated solar thermal energy at approximately 450°C–550°C can be utilized to provide the process heat for this reaction. By coupling solar thermal energy with methane-fueled chemical-looping combustion, the energy level of solar thermal energy at around 450°C–550°C can be upgraded to the chemical energy of solid fuel Ni for better utilization of solar energy to generate electricity. The synergistic integration of solar thermal energy and chemical-looping combustion could make the exergy efficiency and the net solar-to-electric efficiency of the solar hybrid system more than 60% and 30%, respectively, at a turbine inlet temperature (TIT) of 1200°C. At the same time, this new system has an extremely important advantage of directly suppressing the environmental impact due to lack of energy penalty for CO2 recovery. Approximately 9–15 percentage points higher efficiency can be achieved compared to the conventional natural gas-fired combined cycle with CO2 separation. The results obtained here are promising and indicate that this novel solar hybrid combined cycle offers the new possibility of CO2 mitigation using both green energy and fossil fuels. These results also provide a new approach for highly efficient use of solar thermal energy to generate electricity.