Technical University of Darmstadt

During November 2010, an 1 MWth Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) test rig for the combustion of conventional pulverized coal was taken into operation at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. The test rig is the first approach to demonstrate the novel CLC principle in a complete auto-thermal reactor system.

Vattenfall works broadly to promote and monitor the development of the CLC technology. Since 2008, Vattenfall has been involved in the EU-funded ÉCLAIR project in which the reactor system in Darmstadt is being tested. The purpose of the EU-funded project ÉCLAIR (Emission Free Chemical Looping Coal Combustion Process) is to develop CLC for coal combustion.

An important step to improve the CLC technology is the construction of the prototype at Darmstadt Technical University. To complement and support the activities in the Darmstadt pilot plant, the ECLAIR project also includes the construction of a smaller test rig at Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, Sweden.

After the tests made in the ECLAIR project, validation on a larger industrial scale will be needed before the technique can be introduced on full-production scale.