The Impact of Coal and Biomass Co-Firing on the Economy of Power Plant Carbon Capture

Bruce Clements,Philip Geddis,Quan Zhuang

doi:10.32732/ase.2020.12.2.67

Abstract

A detailed economic evaluation was carried out to determine the impact of biomass and coal co-firing on power plant carbon capture by methods of plants equipment designing factors and performance, and the sum up of the associated breakdowns of CAPEX and OPEX. Based on the assumptions of the CO2 neutrality of biomass and likely governmental incentives to reduce CO2 emissions, the study results show that biomass and coal co-firing would result in both lower cost of carbon avoided (carbon capture) and lower incremental cost of electricity generation when MEA solvent carbon capture is applied. Two scenarios for co-firing with carbon capture, 30% biomass blending and 90% or 60% CO2 capture from stack, indicate different preference depending on lower or higher incentives.

Highlights

After decades of investigation, mitigating climate changing is regarded as a worldwide priority [1,2]
A simple and economic way is to adopt coal and biomass co-firing in existing power plants, which has been practiced for decades, as it can be technologically viable for existing power plants [6]
As for carbon mitigation strategies, post combustion capture is the most probable strategy compared to integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and oxy-fuel combustion in terms of technology readiness [9,10]

Summary

Introduction

After decades of investigation, mitigating climate changing is regarded as a worldwide priority [1,2]. Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is fixed into the body of biomass in the growth period, and released back to the atmosphere while decaying. If a post combustion carbon capture technology is applied to a biomass (or partial biomass) fired boiler, a scenario of negative carbon emission could be created, i.e., the CO2 is removed out of the atmosphere into the ground via biomass harvest, combustion, carbon capture and sequestration. This could be the most preferable scenario in limiting global warming [1,3,11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion