1 research outputs found
Pressure Effect on the Multicycle Activity of Natural Carbonates and a Ca/Zr Composite for Energy Storage of Concentrated Solar Power
This
work is focused on the use of the Calcium-Looping process
(CaL) in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants for Thermochemical
Energy Storage (TCES). Cheap, abundant and nontoxic natural carbonate
minerals, such as limestone and dolomite, can be employed in this
application to store energy through the cyclic calcination/carbonation
of CaCO<sub>3</sub>. In a recent work, a closed CO<sub>2</sub> cycle
has been proposed for an efficient CaL-CSP integration in which the
CO<sub>2</sub> in excess effluent from the carbonator is used to generate
electricity by means of a gas turbine. Process simulations show that
the thermoelectric efficiency is enhanced as the carbonator pressure
and temperature are increased provided that the multicycle CaO conversion
is not affected. On the other hand, the use of just one reactor for
both calcination and carbonation has been suggested to reduce capital
cost. However, the experimental results shown in the present work
indicate that sintering is notably enhanced as the pressure in the
reactor is increased. Such an adverse effect is mitigated for a ZrO<sub>2</sub>/CaCO<sub>3</sub> composite with a low Zr content as compared
to natural carbonates. These results are relevant to process simulations
for better assessing the global efficiency of the CaL-CSP integration