Beyond 90% capture: Possible, but at what cost?
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Brandl, Patrick
Bui, Mai
Hallett, Jason P
Mac Dowell, Niall
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will have an essential role in meeting our climate change mitigation targets. CCS technologies are technically mature and will likely be deployed to decarbonise power, industry, heat, and removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. The assumption of a 90% CO2 capture rate has become ubiquitous in the literature, which has led to doubt around whether CO2 capture rates above 90% are even feasible. However, in the context of a 1.5 °C target, going beyond 90% capture will be vital, with residual emissions needing to be indirectly captured via carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. Whilst there will be trade-offs between the cost of increased rates of CO2 capture, and the cost of offsets, understanding where this lies is key to minimising the dependence on CDR. This study quantifies the maximum limit of feasible CO2 capture rate for a range of power and industrial sources of CO2, beyond which abatement becomes uneconomical. In no case, was a capture rate of 90% found to be optimal, with capture rates of up to 98% possible at a relatively low marginal cost. Flue gas composition was found to be a key determinant of the cost of capture, with more dilute streams exhibiting a more pronounced minimum. Indirect capture by deploying complementary CDR is also assessed. The results show that current policy initiatives are unlikely to be sufficient to enable the economically viable deployment of CCS in all but a very few niche sectors of the economy.
Date Issued
2021-02
Date Acceptance
2020-12-17
Citation
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2021, 105, pp.1-16
ISSN
1750-5836
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
1
End Page
16
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
Volume
105
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance Inc (COSIA)
Grant Number
20-GE0026-16-186-0
Subjects
Energy
04 Earth Sciences
05 Environmental Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
103239
Date Publish Online
2021-01-09