Techno-economic analysis of a 660 MWe supercritical coal power plant in India retrofitted with calcium looping (CaL) based CO2 capture system

Abstract

The current study deals with techno-economic analysis of a 660 MWe supercritical coal powerplant in India retrofitted with calcium looping (CaL) based CO2 capture system. Process simulation and thermodynamic analysis are performed using Aspen Plus software, followed by a detailed economic analysis. Performance parameters of calcium looping system are evaluated for Indian high ash (HA) coal as fuel for sorbent regeneration, followed by sensitivity analysis, then compared on a techno-economic basis with different fuel varieties such as South African coal, woody biomass, rice husk and also with other CCS technologies such as MEA and Oxycombustion. Among different fuel varieties, using South African coal results in lowest energy penalty (6.14% points), using biomass based fuels leads to negative emissions and low CO2 avoided cost, using Indian HA coal results in lowest LCOE (93.7 €/MWhnet). Energy penalty of CaL system (8.63% points) is lower than MEA (9.32% points), but slightly higher than Oxycombustion (8.04% points). However, net power output of CaL system (∼870 MWe) is 45% more than existing powerplant (∼601 MWe) and 94% and 81% more than MEA (∼449 MWe) and Oxycombustion (∼482 MWe). Comparison of CCS technologies for same net power output (870 MWe) clearly shows that CaL has the lowest LCOE and CO2 avoided cost. Existing coal power plants in India (having space availability), if retrofitted with calcium looping could achieve the twin goals of decarbonisation as well as an increase in electricity generation capacity. Hence, the calcium looping technology should be explored in detail for further technology development.