The opening ceremony for a LNG fueled 3MWth Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) plant was held on November 2nd, a next generation fuel combustion technology co-developed by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), Korea Western Power (KOWEPO), and other research partners.

The project is carried out as part of the R&D project supported by The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea and the 3MWth plant was jointly designed by the KEPCO Research Institute (KEPRI), KIER, and KEPCO E&C, with Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems responsible for manufacturing design, manufacturing, and installation.

The 3MWth CLC plant is installed at Ulsan city and is the largest CLC plant that runs on LNG, to date. This is also the first CLC plant attempting to produce steam at such scale Commissioning began in October 2023 and full-scale test operation is to commence from 2024. The goal is to achieve more than 95% fuel combustion efficiency (natural gas), CO2purity of over 90% in the exhaust gases, and continuous operation for more than 500 hours including a cumulative operation of 60 days. The test results will be utilized for scale-up design to further develop a commercial scale CLC plant.

The plant will produce 6 tonnes of pure CO2 per day, and the produced liquefied CO2 will be supplied for CO2 utilization research.

The CLC plant, designed with Korean proprietary technology, circulates an oxygen carrier (solid particle containing metal) that repeats oxidation and reduction reactions to separate oxygen from air, a process that is more economical compared to air separation units (ASU) used in traditional oxy-combustion processes. Since fuel is combusted with pure oxygen, it inherently separates CO2 with over 90% purity and produces low level of nitrogen oxide, eliminating the need for an additional carbon capture facility and a selective catalytic reduction facility.

The oxygen carrier was developed by KEPCO Research Institute. The CLC process was developed by KIER. Hyundai Heavy Industries Power System, having 35yrs+ of circulating fluidized bed combustion technology, conducted manufacturing design, manufacturing, and installation of the 3 MWth plant.

CLC technology not only holds promising potential for power generation but also for various industrial applications including industrial boilers. Once proven, it can contribute as a cost-effective greenhouse gas reduction technology to achieve global net-zero goals.