Techno-economic comparison of three technologies for precombustion CO₂ capture from a lignite-fired IGCC

This paper compares the techno-economic
performances of three technologies for CO₂ capture from
a lignite-based IGCC power plant located in the Czech
Republic: (1) Physical absorption with a Rectisol-based
process; (2) Polymeric CO₂-selective membrane-based
capture; (3) Low-temperature capture. The evaluations
show that the IGCC plant with CO₂ capture leads to costs
of electricity between 91 and 120 €$MWh–1, depending on
the capture technology employed, compared to
65 €$MWh–1 for the power plant without capture. This
results in CO₂ avoidance costs ranging from 42 to
84 €$tCO2,avoided
–1 , mainly linked to the losses in net
power output. From both energy and cost points of view,
the low-temperature and Rectisol based CO₂ capture
processes are the most efficient capture technologies.
Furthermore, partial CO₂ capture appears as a good mean
to ensure early implementation due to the limited increase
in CO₂ avoidance cost when considering partial capture.
To go beyond the two specific CO₂-selective membranes
considered, a cost/membrane property map for
CO₂-selective membranes was developed. This map
emphasise the need to develop high performance membrane
to compete with solvent technology. Finally, the cost
of the whole CCS chain was estimated at 54 €$tCO2,avoided
–1
once pipeline transport and storage are taken into
consideration. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019