Techno-economic analysis of hydrogen-driven calcium looping process for flue gas decarbonization

A techno-economic analysis was performed for a hydrogen-driven calcium looping (CaL) process capable of capturing 5 × 10⁴–7 × 10⁴ metric tons of CO₂ per year from flue gas. The study investigated the use of coke oven gas (COG) and wind-photovoltaic to hydrogen (WPTH) as hydrogen sources. With COG as the hydrogen source, the CaL process yielded an annual production of 1.49 × 10⁸ Nm³ CH₄, an energy efficiency of 84.77%, and a payback period of 5.49 years. Conversely, using WPTH as the hydrogen source resulted in a lower annual CH₄ output of 3.9 × 10⁷ Nm³, a reduced energy efficiency of 65.04%, and annual losses of 62.10 million USD. In the near to mid-term, the hydrogen-driven CaL process enabled by COG is practically viable for industrial-scale operation. Using WPTH as the hydrogen source provides some improvements in certain aspects but drawbacks in others compared to COG. However, the considerably higher cost of producing green hydrogen remains a substantial hindrance to the process’s economic feasibility.