Page 41 - European Energy Innovation - Winter 2016 publication

Winter 2016 European Energy Innovation 41

COMMUNICATION

SCARLET
Scale-up of Calcium Carbonate Looping
Technology for Efficient CO2 Capture
from Power and Industrial Plants

Calcium Carbonate Looping (CCL) is a highly
efficient post-combustion CO2 capture
technology utilizing limestone based sorbents

(see Fig.1). CCL is particularly suited for

retrofitting power plants as well as industrial plants (cement,

steel, etc.). For power plant applications, CCL combines

low net efficiency penalties of 5-7 %-points (incl. CO2
compression) with low CO2 avoidance costs below
30 €/tCO2. The feasibility of CCL has been proven by various
pilot plants.

The SCARLET project aims to bring CCL to the next level Figure 2: 1 MWth CCL pilot plant at TU Darmstadt
of maturity by obtaining reliable information and tools for
scale-up of the technology, including the following activities: process model for flexibility evaluation as well as various
• Pilot testing at 1 MWth scale Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approaches for 3D
• Development of scale-up tools reactor simulation of fluidized bed reactors.
• Engineering for a 20 MWth pilot plant
• Techno-economic/environmental assessment for power, A 20 MWth pilot plant will most probably be next step
towards full-scale demonstration of CCL technology. The
cement, steel sector basic design and engineering of such a pilot plant are
carried out considering UNIPER’s Emile Huchet (France)
A highly qualified consortium consisting of academic partners hard coal power plant as the host site. Health and safety
(Technische Universität Darmstadt, University of Ulster, CERTH), analysis as well as technical risk assessment are conducted
technology providers (GE Carbon Capture, Steinmüller for this pilot plant.
Babcock Environment, Lhoist, SWR Engineering) and end users
(Uniper, RWE, ArcelorMittal, CEMEX) provides the expertise
that is required for successful scale-up of the CCL technology.

Four long-term pilot tests (4 weeks each, 24/7) have been The full-scale integration of CCL into various power
performed at the 1 MWth pilot plant at TU Darmstadt (see (hard coal, lignite) and industrial (cement, steel) plants is
Fig. 2). CO2 was continuously captured for more than 1,200 assessed for selected host sites of the industrial partners.
hours from coal originated flue gas under a wide range of Heat and mass balances for various retrofit scenarios are
conditions. Overall CO2 capture efficiencies up to 97 % were established to determine the energy requirements as well
achieved proving the high potential of the process. as CO2 avoidance costs. The environmental impact of the
technology is assessed by life cycle analysis (LCA).
Scale-up tools have been developed and validated against
experimental data of the pilot tests. These include a steady- Save the Date! – The 2nd Public Workshop will take place
state process model for heat and mass balance, a dynamic on 23rd March 2017 at Technische Universität Darmstadt
presenting the final results of the SCARLET project. There
Figure 1: CCL process scheme will be the possibility to visit the CCL pilot plant. The
workshop will be free of charge. Registration can be made
via email. l

Contact details:
www.project-scarlet.eu Email: info@project-scarlet.eu

This project is funded by the European
Union’s 7th Framework Programme
under grant agreement no. 608578.

www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu