Vincent Gouraud from TotalEnergies, leader of work package 4 along with Patrice Font from IFPEN, leader of work package 2 and 5 presented on the techno-economic assessment (TEA) of an industrial scale CLC unit, the design cases relevant for such a scale and finally to benchmark the CLC technology with references considering the full value chain.

Addressing the design cases relevant for industrial scale required modelling the fuel reactor at that scale. To do so, the strategy employed looked at batch unit kinetic studies which were then validated by IFPEN’s 10 kW CLC unit. Understanding the hydrodynamics with the fuel reactor was a necessary step in upgrading to an industrial scale. The demo unit in Deyang, China provides the final validation at the 2-4 MW scale. The process simulation of the CLC plant at industrial scale was also done considering the two use cases: power generation case (at a scale of 200 Mwe) and a refinery case (at a scale of 50Mwe).

With a scope from feed preparation to CO2 compression, r the Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) at industrial scale, highlight the list of required equipment and their cost. . Quotes were obtained from manufacturers on the equipment needed. This TEA is done on the 500 MWth scale with key KPIs being the levelized cost of electricity and the CO2 avoided cost.

The TEA looks at both CLC use cases, refinery and power generation at the respective scales and two reference technologies : CFB circulating fluidised bed and natural gas combined cycle. The resulting 6 combinations are evaluated, and cost estimates were createdConsidering core assumptions to help build the TEA, it confirms that CLC technology is competitive for solid feedstock for both use cases. The levelized cost of electricity is lower for CLC as compared to CFB with amine-based capture and cost of avoided CO2 lower for CLC as well. For comparison with the NGCC case, price sensitivities were introduced to understand what price ranges are favourable for CLC.

The study confirms that CLC is a cost competitive option for reducing emissions in both power generation and refinery cases with solid feedstock. Transport and storage of CO2 costs would impact these costs as a full value chain was evaluated by SINTEF.

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