Techno-economic prospects for CO₂ capture from distributed energy systems

Abstract

CO₂ emissions from distributed energy systems are expected to become increasingly significant, accounting for about 20% for current global energy-related CO₂ emissions in 2030. This article reviews, assesses and compares the techno-economic performance of CO₂ capture from distributed energy systems taking into account differences in timeframe, fuel type and energy plant type. The analysis includes the energy plant, CO ₂ capture and compression, and distributed transport between the capture site and a trunk pipeline. Key parameters, e.g., capacity factor, energy prices and interest rate, were normalized for the performance comparison. The findings of this study indicate that in the short-mid term (around 2020-2025), the energy penalty for CO₂ capture ranges between 23% and 30% for coal-fired plants and 10-28% for natural gas-fired plants. Costs are between 30 and 140 €/tCO₂ avoided for plant scales larger than 100 MW _LHV (fuel input) and 50-150 €/tCO₂ avoided for 10-100 MW_LHV. In the long-term (2030 and beyond), the energy penalty for CO₂ capture might reduce to between 4% and 9% and the costs to around 10-90 €/tCO₂ avoided for plant scales larger than 100 MW _LHV, 25-100 €/tCO₂ avoided for 10-100 MW _LHV and 35-150 €/tCO₂ avoided for 10 MW_LHV or smaller. CO₂ compression and distributed transport costs are significant. For a distance of 30 km, 10 €/tCO₂ transported was calculated for scales below 500 tCO₂/day and more than 50 €/tCO₂ transported for scales below 5 tCO₂/day (equivalent to 1 MW_LHV natural gas). CO₂ compression is responsible for the largest share of these costs. CO₂ capture from distributed energy systems is not prohibitively expensive and has a significant cost reduction potential in the long term. Distributed CO₂ emission sources should also be considered for CCS, adding to the economies of scale of CO₂ transport and storage, and optimizing the deployment of CCS.