Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) has the potential to efficiently capture CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels at an affordable price. CLC is a process that produces a flue gas primarily consisting of CO2 and H2O. The CO2 can be easily separated and captured by condensing the H2O, similar to an oxy-fuel process. Although the process looks promising on paper, the challenge is to make chemical looping a reality by demonstrating that the process can work economically. To help achieve this goal, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), has constructed and tested a 50kWth chemical looping reactor (CLR). The general arrangement of the process consists of a bubbling fluidized bed fuel reactor and a fluidized bed/riser air reactor. Three different metal oxide based oxygen carriers have been successfully tested during week-long test campaigns; a hematite ore, promoted hematite ore, and a manufactured copper based oxygen carrier. These three carriers have demonstrated various levels of performance including conversion of natural gas to CO2 and durability. The goal of these tests is to better understand real process metrics so that appropriate economic analysis can be performed
