Guo Qingjie1，2， Chen Youqi1，2， Guo Tuo2， Sun Mengjuan1，2， Wu Man1
1.College of Chemical Engineering， Qingdao University of Science and Technology， Qingdao 266042， China； 2.Jiangmen Twin Carbon Laboratory Carbon Capture and Industrial Utilization Center， Jiangmen 529199， China
Abstract
Significance To achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals， low-carbon conversion technologies for coal and biomass fuels that combine high energy efficiency with inherent CO2 capture are urgently needed. Chemical looping combustion （CLC） uses metal oxide oxygen carriers circulating between a fuel reactor and an air reactor to transfer lattice oxygen to fuels， so that CO2 is inherently separated from N2 without an energy-intensive gas separation step. Coupling CLC with concentrated solar energy enables solar heat to drive the endothermic pyrolysis， gasification， and oxygen carrier reduction reactions in the fuel reactor， thereby storing intermittent solar energy as chemical energy in syngas or reduced oxygen carriers. When biomass is used as the fuel， negative carbon emissions can be further achieved. This review aims to clarify how solar energy can be coupled with coal- or biomass-fueled CLC to realize internal CO2 separation， efficient energy conversion， and the coordinated improvement of carbon emission reduction and exergy efficiency.
Progress First， the basic principles of CLC and the different reaction characteristics of coal and biomass are summarized， including the high fixed carbon content and sulfur-induced deactivation associated with coal and the high volatile content and alkali-metal- and alkaline-earth-metal-induced agglomeration associated with biomass. Second， the design criteria of oxygen carriers for solar-coupled solid-fuel CLC are discussed in terms of photothermal response， thermochemical stability， reaction kinetics， economic performance， and catalytic activity. The performance of Ni-， Fe-， Cu-， and Mn-based oxygen carriers， as well as composite oxygen carriers， is compared. Composite and doping modification strategies for overcoming the susceptibility to sintering and low activity of single oxygen carriers， as well as the degradation of oxygen carriers in complex biomass pyrolysis atmospheres， are also reviewed. Third， the release mechanism of lattice oxygen is analyzed， and the photothermal and nonthermal photochemical effects under concentrated solar irradiation， which accelerate oxygen ion diffusion and oxygen vacancy formation， are discussed. Finally， representative solar-coupled systems， such as solar-driven biomass chemical looping gasification systems and solar-assisted biomass chemical looping gasification combined-cycle power generation systems， are reviewed together with their techno-economic performance. Solar-assisted heating can reduce the irreversible losses and carbon footprint of the system， achieve a carbon capture efficiency of nearly 100%， and significantly increase the syngas yield and energy upgrade factor. Techno-economic analyses show that the levelized cost of CO2 of biomass CLC can decrease to 73.04-87.32 €/t at near-industrial scale， and that CLC becomes competitive with conventional carbon capture technologies when the CO2 price reaches 60-100 €/t.
Conclusions and Prospects The coupling of CLC with solar energy and complex solid fuels is a key technology for developing future low-carbon energy systems， but its industrial application is still limited by insufficient solar absorptivity and insufficient long-term stability of oxygen carriers， the non-uniform temperature fields in solar reactors， the dynamic mismatch between intermittent solar input and continuous operation， and the lack of reliable engineering cost data. Future research should focus on developing high-performance， wear-resistant composite oxygen carrier particles that can withstand unsteady photothermal loads and resist deactivation， scaling up photothermal fuel reactors with the aid of computational fluid dynamics and multiphysics simulations， and integrating multiple energy sources across the entire chain based on techno-economic assessment. These efforts will provide technical support for the industrial demonstration of solar-coupled CLC with a thermal input power of 10 MW and above， and will promote the development of this technology for low-carbon， high-efficiency power generation and negative carbon emissions.
Keywords：chemical looping combustion； biomass； solar energy； oxygen carrier； carbon capture； energy efficiency improvement； multi-energy complementarity
Get Citation: Guo Qingjie， Chen Youqi， Guo Tuo， et al. Research progress on solar-coupled coal- or biomass-fueled chemical looping combustion［J］. China Powder Science and Technology， 2026， 32（6）： 1-11.
Received: 2026-05-07， Revised：2026-10-12， Online：2026-10-16。
Funding：The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22379079) and the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia (Grant No. 2022AAC01001).
DOI: 10.13732/j.issn.1008-5548.2026.06.015
CLC No.: TQ534； TQ536； TB4
Type Code: A
Serial No.: 1008-5548（2026）06-0001-11
