Carbon capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) covers a broad range of technologies that are being developed to allow carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuel use at large point sources to be transported to safe geological storage, rather than being emitted to the atmosphere. Some key enabling contributions from technology development that could help to facilitate the widespread commercial deployment of CCS are expected to include cost reductions for CO₂ capture technology and improved techniques for monitoring stored CO₂. It is important, however, to realise that CCS will always require additional energy compared to projects without CCS, so will not be used unless project operators see an appropriate value for reducing CO₂ emissions from their operations or legislation is introduced that requires CCS to be used. Possible key advances for CO₂ capture technology over the next 50 years, which are expected to arise from an eventual adoption of CCS as standard practice for all large stationary fossil fuel installations, are also identified. These include continued incremental improvements (e.g. many potential solvent developments) as well as possible step-changes, such as ion transfer membranes for oxygen production for integrated gasifier combined cycle and oxyfuel plants.     

Environmental analysis of a German strategy for carbon capture and storage of coal power plants

This paper combines an existing projection of the development of electricity production with a technology-specific environmental assessment. The combination of these two approaches, which so far have only been performed separately, allows a discussion about environmental effects of carbon capture and storage (CCS) implementation strategies on a national level. The results identify the future role of lignite and hard coal in German power production. The implementation of CCS technology leads to a considerable loss of efficiency. Due to CCS, about 50 million t of lignite will be additionally required in 2030 in comparison to the reference case without CCS in 2010. Increasing demand, the replacement of old plants and the compensation of efficiency losses lead to highly ambitious expansion rates. In the case of CCS implementation, the global warming potential (GWP) can be reduced by up to 70%. However, other environmental impacts increase in part considerably. Compliance with national ceilings for NO_x emissions can only be reached by compensation measures in other sectors. The results of the environmental assessment demonstrate the significant role of the coal composition, coal origin and the required transport. CO₂ pipeline transport and CO₂ storage make a fairly minor contribution to the overall environmental impact.     

The performance of the Norwegian carbon dioxide,capture and storage innovation system

In order to take up Norway's twin challenge of reducing CO₂ emissions, while meeting its growing energy demand with domestic resources, the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) plays an important role in Norwegian energy policies. This study uses the Functions of Innovation Systems approach to identify key policy issues that need to be addressed in order to prolong Norway's international leadership position in the development of CCS. The analysis shows that Norway has been successful in building an innovation system around CCS technology. The key determinants for this achievement are pinpointed in this article. However, the evolution of the innovation system seems to have entered a critical phase that is decisive for a further thriving development of CCS in Norway. The results provide a clear understanding of the current impediments in the CCS innovation system and stress the need to direct policy initiatives at the identified weak system functions—i.e. entrepreneurial activity and market formation—to improve the performance of the system. We discuss how policymakers can use these insights to develop a coherent set of policy instruments that would foster the deployment of CCS concepts related to power production and enhanced oil recovery in Norway.     

Carbon capture and storage as a corporate technology strategy challenge

Latest estimates suggest that widespread deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) could account for up to one-fifth of the needed global reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2050. Governments are attempting to stimulate investments in CCS technology both directly through subsidizing demonstration projects, and indirectly through developing price incentives in carbon markets. Yet, corporate decision-makers are finding CCS investments challenging. Common explanations for delay in corporate CCS investments include operational concerns such as the high cost of capture technologies, technological uncertainties in integrated CCS systems and underdeveloped regulatory and liability regimes. In this paper, we place corporate CCS adoption decisions within a technology strategy perspective. We diagnose four underlying characteristics of the strategic CCS technology adoption decision that present unusual challenges for decision-makers: such investments are precautionary, sustaining, cumulative and situated. Understanding CCS as a corporate technology strategy challenge can help us move beyond the usual list of operational barriers to CCS and make public policy recommendations to help overcome them.     

Conditional inevitability: Expert perceptions of carbon capture and storage uncertainties in the UK context

This paper presents findings on expert perceptions of uncertainty in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and policy in the UK, through survey data and semi-structured interviews with 19 individual participants. Experts were interviewed in industry, research, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the summer of 2009 and were asked to comment on a range of technical processes as well as policy concerns. The survey revealed that perceptions of the technology conform to a ‘certainty trough’ with users expressing the lowest level of uncertainty, and outsiders expressing the highest level of uncertainty. The interviews revealed that experts express certitude in the prospects for deploying large-scale CCS technology in the UK, all the while questioning several underlying technical and policy premises that are necessary to ensure this goal.     

Sulphur impacts during pulverised coal combustion in oxy-fuel technology for carbon capture and storage

The oxy-fuel process is one of three carbon capture technologies which supply CO₂ ready for sequestration - the others being post-combustion capture and IGCC with carbon capture. As yet no technology has emerged as a clear winner in the race to commercial deployment. The oxy-fuel process relies on recycled flue gas as the main heat carrier through the boiler and results in significantly different flue gas compositions. Sulphur has been shown in the study to have impacts in the furnace, during ash collection, CO₂ compression and transport as well as storage, with many options for its removal or impact control. In particular, the effect of sulphur containing species can pose a risk for corrosion throughout the plant and transport pipelines. This paper presents a technical review of all laboratory and pilot work to identify impacts of sulphur impurities from throughout the oxy-fuel process, from combustion, gas cleaning, compression to sequestration with removal and remedial options. An economic assessment of the optimum removal is not considered. Recent oxy-fuel pilot trials performed in support of the Callide Oxy-fuel Project and other pilot scale data are interpreted and combined with thermodynamic simulations to develop a greater fundamental understanding of the changes incurred by recycling the flue gas. The simulations include a sensitivity analysis of process variables and comparisons between air fired and oxy-fuel fired conditions - such as combustion products, SO₃ conversion and limestone addition.     

Combining hybrid cars and synthetic fuels with electricity generation and carbon capture and storage

We examined the co-evolution of the transportation, and electricity and heat generation sectors in the Netherlands until 2040 using a MARKAL bottom-up cost optimisation model.     

Evaluation of energy integration aspects for IGCC-based hydrogen and electricity co-production with carbon capture and storage

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is a power generation technology in which the solid feedstock is partially oxidized with oxygen and steam to produce syngas. In a conventional IGCC design without carbon capture, the syngas is purified for dust and hydrogen sulphide removal and then sent to a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) for power generation. Carbon capture technologies are expected to play an important role in the coming decades for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. In a modified IGCC design for carbon capture, the syngas is catalytically shifted to maximize the hydrogen level and to concentrate the carbon species in the form of carbon dioxide which can be later captured in a pre-combustion arrangement. After carbon dioxide capture, the hydrogen-rich syngas can be either purified in a Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) unit and exported to the external customers (e.g., chemical industry, PEM fuel cells) or used in a CCGT for power generation.     

Global learning on carbon capture and storage: A call for strong international cooperation on CCS demonstration

Closing the gap between carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) rhetoric and technical progress is critically important to global climate mitigation efforts. Developing strong international cooperation on CCS demonstration with global coordination, transparency, cost-sharing and communication as guiding principles would facilitate efficient and cost-effective collaborative global learning on CCS, would allow for improved understanding of the global capacity and applicability of CCS, and would strengthen global trust, awareness and public confidence in the technology.     

Carbon capture and storage using alkaline industrial wastes

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is gaining momentum as a means for combating climate change. It is viewed as an important bridging technology, allowing emission targets to be met during fossil fuel dependence while sufficient renewable energy generation is installed. Mineral carbon sequestration is the only known form of permanent carbon storage and has the potential to capture and store CO₂ in a single step. It is based on the geologic process of natural rock weathering where CO₂ dissolved in rain water reacts with alkaline rocks to form carbonate minerals. While the reactions are thermodynamically favourable, in nature the process occurs over thousands of years. The challenge of mineral carbon sequestration is to accelerate carbonation and exploit the heat of reaction with minimal energy and material losses. Minerals commonly selected for carbonation include calcium and magnesium silicates. These minerals require energy-intensive pre-treatments, such as fine grinding, heat treatment, and chemical activation with strong acids, to provide adequate conversions and reaction kinetics. Industrial waste residues present alternative sources of mineral alkalinity that are more reactive than primary minerals and are readily and cheaply available close to CO₂ sources. In addition, the carbonation of waste residues often improves their environmental stability. This paper provides an overview of the types of industrials wastes that can be used for mineral carbon sequestration and the process routes available.     

Coal and energy security for India: Role of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS)

Coal is the abundant domestic energy resource in India and is projected to remain so in future under a business-as-usual scenario. Using domestic coal mitigates national energy security risks. However coal use exacerbates global climate change. Under a strict climate change regime, coal use is projected to decline in future. However this would increase imports of energy sources like natural gas (NG) and nuclear and consequent energy security risks for India. The paper shows that carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture and storage (CCS) can mitigate CO₂ emissions from coal-based large point source (LPS) clusters and therefore would play a key role in mitigating both energy security risks for India and global climate change risks. This paper estimates future CO₂ emission projections from LPS in India, identifies the potential CO₂ storage types at aggregate level and matches the two into the future using Asia-Pacific Integrated Model (AIM/Local model) with a Geographical Information System (GIS) interface. The paper argues that clustering LPS that are close to potential storage sites could provide reasonable economic opportunities for CCS in future if storage sites of different types are further explored and found to have adequate capacity. The paper also indicates possible LPS locations to utilize CCS opportunities economically in future, especially since India is projected to add over 220,000 MW of thermal power generation capacity by 2030.     

Incorporating carbon capture and storage technologies in integrated assessment models

Low-carbon emitting technologies are a key component of technical change in integrated assessment models. We develop a methodology for incorporating technologies into computable general equilibrium economic models and demonstrate this methodology by implementing carbon capture and storage technologies in the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. Three primary implementation issues are discussed: characterization of the technical system, translation of bottom–up engineering information into an economic model, and the depiction of realistic technology adoption rates. The specification of input substitution, relative costs, and plant dispatch are the most critical factors in technology representation. Technology adoption rates in economic models are governed by exogenous and endogenous constraints. A comparison of the current approaches used in economic models with the theoretical and empirical factors affecting adoption rates highlights opportunities for refining the current methods.     

Study of a roadmap for carbon capture and storage development in Guangdong Province,China

Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are increasing rapidly in Guangdong, an economically developed Chinese province. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important approach to lower carbon concentration in this area. This study provides guidance and recommendations for CCS development and demonstration by analysing the necessity of CCS in Guangdong. Furthermore, this study identifies the major opportunities and technical demands related to CCS development in this province based on a sectoral analysis of emission inventory and the forecasting and identification of the potential CO ₂ storage capacity. A CCS development roadmap is then developed for Guangdong based on the analysis results, and the milestone goals of this roadmap from the present until 2030 are presented in accordance with the development of technology in and the current status of Guangdong. In addition, the roadmap suggests CCS support policies.     

Catalyzing strategic transformation to a low-carbon economy: A CCS roadmap for China

China now faces the three hard truths of thirsting for more oil, relying heavily on coal, and ranking first in global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Given these truths, two key questions must be addressed to develop a low-carbon economy: how to use coal in a carbon-constrained future? How to increase domestic oil supply to enhance energy security? Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may be a technological solution that can deal with today's energy and environmental needs while enabling China to move closer to a low-carbon energy future. This paper has been developed to propose a possible CCS roadmap for China. To develop the roadmap, we first explore major carbon capture opportunities in China and then identify critical CCS-enabling technologies, as well as analyze their current status and future prospects. We find that coal gasification or polygeneration in combination with CCS could be a nearly unbeatable combination for China's low-carbon future. Even without CCS, gasification offers many benefits: once coal is gasified into syngas, it can be used for many different purposes including for alternative fuels production, thereby increasing the domestic oil supply and the flexibility of the energy system.     

Techno-economic appraisal of fossil-fuelled power generation systems with carbon dioxide capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities coupled to power plants provide a climate change mitigation strategy that potentially permits the continued use of fossil fuels whilst reducing the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. This process involves three basic stages: capture and compression of CO₂ from power stations, transport of CO₂, and storage away from the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. Potential routes for the capture, transport and storage of CO₂ from United Kingdom (UK) power plants are examined. Six indicative options are evaluated, based on ‘Pulverised Coal’, ‘Natural Gas Combined Cycle’, and ‘Integrated (coal) Gasification Combined Cycle’ power stations. Chemical and physical CO₂ absorption capture techniques are employed with realistic transport possibilities to ‘Enhanced Oil Recovery’ sites or depleted gas fields in the North Sea. The selected options are quantitatively assessed against well-established economic and energy-related criteria. Results show that CO₂ capture can reduce emissions by over 90%. However, this will reduce the efficiency of the power plants concerned, incurring energy penalties between 14 and 30% compared to reference plants without capture. Costs of capture, transport and storage are concatenated to show that the whole CCS chain ‘cost of electricity’ (COE) rises by 27-142% depending on the option adopted. This is a significant cost increase, although calculations show that the average ‘cost of CO₂ captured’ is £15/tCO₂ in 2005 prices [the current base year for official UK producer price indices]. If potential governmental carbon penalties were introduced at this level, then the COE would equate to the same as the reference plant, and make CCS a viable option to help mitigate large-scale climate change.     

New technology and possible advances in energy storage

Energy storage technologies may be electrical or thermal. Electrical energy stores have an electrical input and output to connect them to the system of which they form part, while thermal stores have a thermal input and output. The principal electrical energy storage technologies described are electrochemical systems (batteries and flow cells), kinetic energy storage (flywheels) and potential energy storage, in the form of pumped hydro and compressed air. Complementary thermal storage technologies include those based on the sensible and latent heat capacity of materials, which include bulk and smaller-capacity hot and cold water storage systems, ice storage, phase change materials and specific bespoke thermal storage media.     

Performance and costs of power plants with capture and storage of CO2

This paper assesses the three leading technologies for capture of CO₂ in power generation plants, i.e., post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture and oxy-fuel combustion. Performance, cost and emissions data for coal and natural gas-fired power plants are presented, based on information from studies carried out recently for the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme by major engineering contractors and process licensors. Sensitivities to various potentially significant parameters are assessed.     

征收碳税对我国二氧化碳减排的影响

我国的大气污染问题亟需大力整治,调整以煤为主的能源结构是根本途径,体现环境成本与征收碳税是重要方法之一,且在国外已有成功经验.本文利用联立方程模型,通过假设不同碳税征收的情景,分析碳税对我国原油、天然气及煤炭消费的影响,继而测算对二氧化碳减排的影响.结果表明,征收碳税可对碳减排起到显著的作用,可促使能源结构向清洁化发展,化石能源消费受到抑制,但受影响程度不同,煤炭消费受影响最大,天然气消费受影响最小.在碳税征收上应采取循序渐进的征收方式,避免对经济和行业发展产生较大冲击.     

Coal mining industry restructuring in Poland: implications for the domestic and international coal markets

The paper describes the efforts to improve the profitability of the Polish hard-coal industry. The experience of seven years of restructuring programmes shows that the industry has to reduce the number of existing coal mines. Coal production in Poland will decrease and coal will no longer be the cheap source of energy. The final shape of hard-coal industry will force the change in energy balance of Poland and will change the position of Polish coal in the international coal market.     

Evaluation of power generation schemes based on hydrogen-fuelled combined cycle with carbon capture and storage (CCS)

IGCC is a power generation technology in which the solid feedstock is partially oxidized to produce syngas. In a modified IGCC design for carbon capture, there are several technological options which are evaluated in this paper. The first two options involve pre-combustion arrangements in which syngas is processed, either by shift conversion or chemical looping, to maximise the hydrogen level and to concentrate the carbon species as CO₂. After CO₂ capture by gas-liquid absorption or chemical looping, the hydrogen-rich gas is used for power generation. The third capture option is based on post-combustion arrangement using chemical absorption.Investigated coal-based IGCC case studies produce 400-500 MW net power with more than 90% carbon capture rate. Principal focus of the paper is concentrated on evaluation of key performance indicators for investigated carbon capture options, the influence of various gasifiers on carbon capture process, optimisation of energy efficiency by heat and power integration, quality specification of captured CO₂. The capture option with minimal energy penalty is based on chemical looping, followed by pre-combustion and post-combustion.