Looping cycles for low carbon technologies: A survey of recent research activities in Naples

A novel concept has been developed (CarboLoop) to accomplish capture-ready combustion/gasification of carbon through iterated oxidation/desorption cycles. The idea is that alternated oxygen chemisorption on carbon followed by thermal desorption of oxides as CO/CO2 provide a path with inherent oxygen separation and concentrated CO/CO2 streams. The path to exploitation of the CarboLoop is laid by elucidation of the thermochemistry of carbon oxidation throughout dynamic oxidizing/reducing cycles.

In the last decades several looping processes for clean utilization of fossil resources have been proposed with the aim of providing transient/long-term solutions to the challenge of near-zero emission energy production. A selection of solids looping processes for both carbon oxidation/gasification and CO2 capture/utilization will be surveyed, with a specific focus on the contribution given by the research group active in Naples.