Chemical looping technologies for H2 production with CO2 capture: thermodynamic assessment and economic comparison

This work addresses the techno-economic assessment of two chemical looping technologies for H2 production from natural gas fully integrated with CO2 capture. In the first configuration, chemical looping combustion operated with a dual circulating fluidized bed system at atmospheric pressure is used as furnace for the reforming reaction. In the second configuration, a chemical looping reforming system at pressurized conditions is used for the production of the reformed syngas. Both configurations have been designed and compared with reference technologies for H2 production based on conventional fired tubular reforming with and without CO2 capture. The results of the analysis show that both new concepts can achieve higher H2 reforming efficiency than a conventional plant when integrated with CO2 capture (+8-10% higher). The improvement in the performance of the plant is accompanied with an efficiency penalty of 4-6% and the cost of CO2 avoidance varies from 20-85 €/tonCO2