Life cycle and cost assessment of mineral carbonation for carbon capture and storage in European power generation

Abstract

Large-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions are crucial for achieving the European goals for climate change mitigation. A frequently discussed option is carbon capture and storage (CCS), where CO2 emissions from point sources are captured and stored in geologic structures. However, concerns about risks of leakages of CO2 from geological storage have been raised. These risks could be avoided with ex situ mineral carbonation, where the captured CO2 is stored in an inert and stable solid form after reacting with calcium and magnesium silicates. For a comprehensive assessment of the environmental and economic performance of this CO2 storage option in fossil-fueled power generation chains, life cycle assessment (LCA) and levelized cost of electricity (LCoE) calculations are performed. The implementation of CCS using mineral carbonation leads to life cycle GHG emission reductions of 15–64% and LCoE increases of 90–370% on a per kWhel basis compared to a reference power plant without CCS. The life cycle GHG emission reduction achievable with mineral sequestration is less substantial than with geological storage of CO2 due to significant energy and chemical additives requirements. Accordingly, LCA results for other environmental indicators are worse than those of the reference plant without CCS and the geological CO2 storage option.