Carbon capture and storage (CCS) represents a key solution to control the global warming reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. This study reports a comparative performance assessment of different power generation technologies, including ultrasupercritical (USC) pulverized coal combustion plant with postcombustion CO2 capture, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) with precombustion CO2 capture, and oxy-coal combustion (OCC) unit. These three power plants have been studied considering traditional configuration, without CCS, and a more complex configuration with CO2 capture. These technologies (with and without CCS systems) have been compared from both the technical and economic points of view, considering a reference thermal input of 1000 MW. As for CO2 storage, the sequestration in saline aquifers has been considered. Whereas a conventional (without CCS) coal-fired USC power plant results to be more suitable than IGCC for power generation, IGCC becomes more competitive for CO2-free plants, being the precombustion CO2 capture system less expensive (from the energetic point of view) than the postcombustion one. In this scenario, oxy-coal combustion plant is currently not competitive with USC and IGCC, due to the low industrial experience, which means higher capital and operating costs and a lower plant operating reliability. But in a short-term future, a progressive diffusion of commercial-scale OCC plants will allow a reduction of capital costs and an improvement of the technology, with higher efficiency and reliability. This means that OCC promises to become competitive with USC and also with IGCC.
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November 2016
Research-Article
CO2 Emissions Reduction From Coal-Fired Power Generation: A Techno-Economic Comparison
Vittorio Tola,
Vittorio Tola
Department of Mechanical,
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: vittorio.tola@dimcm.unica.it
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: vittorio.tola@dimcm.unica.it
Search for other works by this author on:
Giorgio Cau,
Giorgio Cau
Department of Mechanical,
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: gcau@unica.it
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: gcau@unica.it
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Alberto Pettinau
Alberto Pettinau
Search for other works by this author on:
Vittorio Tola
Department of Mechanical,
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: vittorio.tola@dimcm.unica.it
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: vittorio.tola@dimcm.unica.it
Giorgio Cau
Department of Mechanical,
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: gcau@unica.it
Chemical and Materials Engineering,
University of Cagliari,
Via Marengo 2,
Cagliari 09123, Italy
e-mail: gcau@unica.it
Francesca Ferrara
Alberto Pettinau
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Advanced Energy Systems Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received October 30, 2015; final manuscript received August 22, 2016; published online September 14, 2016. Assoc. Editor: Vittorio Verda.
J. Energy Resour. Technol. Nov 2016, 138(6): 061602 (9 pages)
Published Online: September 14, 2016
Article history
Received:
October 30, 2015
Revised:
August 22, 2016
Citation
Tola, V., Cau, G., Ferrara, F., and Pettinau, A. (September 14, 2016). "CO2 Emissions Reduction From Coal-Fired Power Generation: A Techno-Economic Comparison." ASME. J. Energy Resour. Technol. November 2016; 138(6): 061602. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4034547
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