Current and Future Power Generation Technologies: Pathways to Reducing the Cost of Carbon Capture for Coal-fueled Power Plants

Abstract

As part of the United States Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) implements research, development and demonstration (RD&D) that is focused on maximizing system efficiency and performance while minimizing the costs of coal-based power production with carbon capture and storage. In order to evaluate the benefits and market competitiveness of ongoing RD&D, NETL conducts engineering studies to evaluate the cost and performance of plants integrating multiple advanced technologies currently under development. This paper evaluates two different coal conversion pathways -combustion and gasification -and their potential to provide low-cost, low-carbon power from coal.

The cost of CO2 capture and storage

“…Such studies typically employ a "bottom-up" engineering analysis of a proposed flowsheet or process design whose cost is then estimated. On that basis, for example, the USDOE/NETL estimates cost reductions of approximately 20%, 17%, and 27% in the LCOE of advanced coalbased power plants with post-combustion, oxy-combustion, and IGCC/pre-combustion capture, respectively (Gerdes et al, 2014). Fig.…”

Techno-Economic Feasibility Study of the Commercial-Scale Oxy-CFB Carbon Capture System in Turkey

“…Since these factors may change the total plant costs, direct comparison of the data obtained in the literature may not give the correct result. [49]. Figure 6 shows the comparison of the COE results of the proposed Oxy-CFB case and NETL studies.…”

Toward transformational carbon capture systems

“…Second‐generation carbon capture technologies currently under development, including base plant improvements, are expected to result in a 20% reduction in the COE or better relative to SOTA technology for new, greenfield plants; this cost reduction is equivalent to a capture cost of $40/ton of CO 2 , not including transport and storage . CCS technologies for retrofitting existing plants will be critical both for U.S. and global CO 2 mitigation goals.…”

“…Only through the pursuit of disruptive concepts can the additional reductions in COE and cost of capture beyond second‐generation targets be achieved. This requires breakthrough research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) that can provide a total of a 30% reduction in the COE or better relative to SOTA technology . The study of the ultimate and practical performance limitations of candidate transformational technologies is just now beginning; a quantified metric adhering to these constraints is expected to be available in 2016 as the DOE revises its R&D Pathways study.…”