The role of external heat exchangers in oxy-fuel circulating fluidized bed

Recently, oxy-fuel combustion has received increasing attention as one of the short-term solutions for capturing CO2 from power plants. Despite their quick development, there are several issues that need further research. Combustion characteristics, heat transfer, emissions levels, optimum oxygen concentration and flue gas recycle are the main concern of the literature. All these issues may introduce several changes in power plant and boiler configuration that causes uncertainty in the final design of future installations. In this respect, oxy-fuel combustion in fluidized bed seems to present advantages in terms of flexibility, operational adaptability and simplicity of design modifications respect to air combustion. These issues have been though scarcely analysed in open literature.