A hydrogen and oxygen combined cycle with chemical-looping combustion

In the current paper, new systems integrating chemical-looping hydrogen (CLH) generation and the hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) combined cycle have been proposed. The new methane-fueled cycle using CLH has been investigated with the aid of the exergy principle (energy utilization diagram methodology). First, H2 is produced in the CLH, in which FeO and Fe3O4 are used as the looping material. The H2 and O2 combined cycle then uses H2 as fuel. Two types of these combined cycles have been analyzed. Waste heat from the H2–O2 combined cycle is utilized in the CLH to produce H2. The advantages of CLH and the H2 and O2 combined cycle have resulted in a breakthrough in performance. The new system can achieve 59.8% net efficiency with CO2 separation when the turbine inlet temperature is 1300 °C. Meanwhile, the cycle is environmentally superior because of the recovery of CO2 without an energy penalty.