Chemical-Looping Combustion (CLC) has emerged in recent years as a very promising combustion technology for power plants and industrial applications with inherent CO2 capture, which circumvent the energy penalty imposed on other competing technologies. The process is based on the use of a metal oxide to transport the oxygen needed for combustion in order to prevent direct contact between the fuel and air. CLC is performed in two interconnected reactors, and the CO2 separation inherent to the process practically eliminates the energy penalty associated with gas separation. The CLC process was initially developed for gaseous fuels, and its application was subsequently extended to solid fuels. The process has been demonstrated in units of different size, from bench scale to MW-scale pilot plants, burning natural gas, syngas, coal and biomass, and using ores and synthetic materials as oxygen-carriers. An overview of the status of the process, starting with the fundamentals and considering the main experimental results and characteristics of process performance, is made both for gaseous and solid fuels. Process modelling of the system for solid and gaseous fuels is also analysed. The main research needs and challenges both for gaseous and solid fuel are highlighted.

Authors wish to thank to EU Framework Programmes 5, 6 and 7; RFCS-EU; Spanish Research and Development National Plan; Alstom Power Boilers; CCP Project (1 and 2); and Shell for funding the research mentioned in this work.

7 Figures, 3 Tables.-- © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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