Optimization and Comparative Analysis of Different CCUS Systems in China: The Case of Shanxi Province

Abstract

As an effective technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology has been a major strategic choice and has received widespread attention. Meanwhile, the high cost and strict requirements of carbon dioxide storage and utilization on geographical conditions, industrial equipment, and other aspects limit large-scale applications of CCUS. Taking Shanxi Province as an example, in this paper, we study the economic and environmental characteristics of carbon dioxide capture, storage, and utilization under different combinations of technical routes. Steel, power, cement, and chemical industries are considered. Deep saline aquifers and CO2-enhanced coalbed methane (CO2-ECBM) recovery are selected as the two types of sequestration sinks. Urea production, methanol production, microalgae cultivation, and cement curing are selected as the four potential utilization methods. Then, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is used to optimize the CO2 utilization pathway based on the principle of least cost, to select the best emission sources, CO2 pipelines, intermediate transportation nodes, utilization, and storage nodes to achieve reasonable deployment of CCS/CCU projects in Shanxi Province. The results show that CCU with urea production has the lowest cost and is the most economically viable with over 50% reduction in emissions. The second option is CCS which includes CO2-ECBM and achieves a 50% reduction in emissions. In addition, there is little difference between the cost of cement-cured CCU and that of methanol-produced CCU. CCU for microalgae cultivation has the highest cost. Therefore, the latter three utilization pathways are currently not economical.