Cost of Capturing CO(2) Drops 67% for Next Carbon Capture Plant

News provided by

International CCS Knowledge Centre

28 Nov, 2018, 10:00 GMT

EDINBURGH, Scotland, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

A much anticipated new study that demonstrates significant cost reductions for carbon capture and storage (CCS) was released today by the International CCS Knowledge Centre (Knowledge Centre). The release coincides with the International CCS Summit hosted by the Government of the United Kingdom and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Deep capital cost reductions - a 67% decrease per tonne of captured CO2 in the case study provided in the report - is one of the key findings in the Knowledge Centre's Shand CCS Feasibility Study. For a technology that has been perceived as expensive, the report is welcome news to those that recognize the essential role that CCS must play in addressing climate change.

It is widely accepted that CCS applied to both emissions-intensive industry and power generation has a critical role to play in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). In a recent report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the unique importance of CCS technologies in meeting climate goals. With the availability of significant cost reduction based on operating and design experience gained from early projects, and further innovation yet to come, CCS is now positioning itself in a range of industries to play a critical role in delivering climate goals.

The Shand CCS Feasibility Study is based on an independent study of the construction and design of SaskPower's Boundary Dam 3 CCS project. In addition to cost reductions, key outcomes of the Shand CCS Feasibility Study include:

  1. A design that ensures improved responsiveness to fluctuating customer demand for power, which is increasingly necessary in power systems that exhibit increasing levels of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar;
  2. A design that minimizes water requirements; and
  3. A meaningful reduction in process complexity, allowing efficiency gains to be maximized.

Quotes 

"World-wide deployment of large-scale CCS could be one important step closer to broad deployment in a range of industries to support international climate change goals. We look forward to early engagement with deployers to maximize cost savings and efficiency gains."

- Mike Monea, President & CEO, International CCS Knowledge Centre

"The results of the study are quite impressive. We are pleased that our technology application contributes to the outcome, and we are very proud to be part of the Shand CCS study."

- Kenji Terasawa - Representative Director (Member of the Board), Executive Vice President, MHI Engineering Ltd.

Read the summary or the full report online at https://ccsknowledge.com/news

Quick Facts 

The Shand CCS Feasibility Study (Shand Study) 

  • The Shand Study was completed to the American Association of Costing Engineers (AACE) guidelines for a class 4 estimate, and applied innovative approaches in design and technologies, leading to encouraging economic outcomes for future CCS.
  • The study shows that compared to the Boundary Dam 3 CCS project (BD3), a CCS system at Shand could see capture capital cost reductions of 67% per tonne of CO2 captured as well as 92% in potential savings to power plant integration capital cost.
  • Based on the model, the levelized cost of captured CO2 is calculated at $45US/tonne.
  • Second generation CCS can capture more emissions at lower loads (i.e. power generation) such that more than a 90% capture rate is possible. This means that CCS has the potential to integrate well with renewables which provide a varying load. CO2 capture rate could be up to 97% at 62% electrical load.
  • The Shand CCS system would be designed without the requirement of additional water, mitigating a key constraint for thermal plant operation retrofits and expansions.
  • At this site, up to 140,000 tonnes per year of fly ash would be saleable to the concrete market (subject to demand), which could offset emissions in concrete production. This equates to a potential net reduction of 125,000 tonnes of CO2 each year resulting in a facility with net-negative CO2 emissions.
  • The Shand CCS project design capacity is nominally 2 million tonnes of CO2 captured per year - twice the initial design capacity of BD3 (this economy of scale reduces costs).

Climate Change Links 

  • CCS is considered essential in three of the four pathways to keep global warming within 1.5[o]C - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees Celsius
  • Most of the world can't meet emissions targets without CCS - and for those that can, the median increase in mitigation cost is 138% - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: IPCC AR5 2014

CCS Links  

What others are saying about the Shand CCS feasibility study:  

"This innovative study destroys the myth, once and for all, that Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) in the power sector is not a cost-effective mitigation option. The study clearly demonstrates that CCUS on coal can be competitive with natural gas even with the very low gas prices in North America."

- John Gale, General Manager, IEAGHG

"The public report of The Shand CCS Feasibility Study provides an important and welcomed analysis of how the next generation of carbon capture and storage technology can be designed to achieve substantially lower costs together with even greater emission reductions than the pioneering first-generation plant at SaskPower's Boundary Dam Unit 3. The study's consideration of the site-specific characteristics and operation of the Shand Power Station makes it especially credible and valuable as an indication of progress down the CCS learning curve."

- Prof. Edward S. Rubin, Carnegie Mellon University

"The Feasibility Study for applying CCS to the Shand Power Station is a valuable contribution to the growing body of knowledge on the environmental and economic necessity of CCS. Most importantly, the Study proves the point that there is nothing like learning by doing to dramatically improve the engineering, project management and economics of new technologies. The Saskatchewan Government and the International CCS Knowledge Centre have shown the value gained from their world leading investment to deliver the ground-breaking Boundary Dam 3 CCS facility, the experience of which has enabled the dramatic improvements for the next-of-a-kind plant that are described in the Shand Feasibility Study."

- Global CCS Institute.

"The team at the International CCS Knowledge Centre has shown how costs can be reduced through learning by doing. The new CCS retrofit design from the Shand CCS Feasibility Study shows how all nations will save time and money implementing next generation CCUS technologies as part of the global effort to tackle climate change. It further enable's energy markets to choose coal-fired power plants as a source of reliable, low-emissions energy while also developing a CO2 solution for industry."

- Stephen Malss, Director, Low Emissions Technology COAL21

"CCS provides an important tool in reducing our CO2 emissions. And it works! This report illustrates that continuous improvement from lessons learned can help bring about cost reduction; and in this case significant cost reduction through novel application. The availability of CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as a utilization option for CO2 provides a stepping stone for larger scale CCS deployment. With a risk based, site specific measurement monitoring & verification (MMV) program, secure storage can be demonstrated in the reservoir.  

CCS has applications beyond Oil and Gas. It is required in Fertilizer manufacture, cement manufacturing, steel fabrication, and power generation. CCS when integrated with Renewables provides an effective means for CO2 emission reduction. For example, 1 million tonnes of emission reduction from CCS is the equivalent of 1 year of Tokyo transportation emissions. When combined with biofuel production, it can even provide an effective means for achieving negative emissions.  

In addition to the value CCS brings with CO2 reduction, it plays a key role in job creation. A 1 million tpa CCS installation can generate hundreds of jobs over several year of construction and provide ongoing employment for the Maintenance, Operations, and Technical staff to operate the facility." 

- Tim Wiwchar, Business Opportunity Manager, Shell

About the International CCS Knowledge Centre (Knowledge Centre):

Operating since 2016 under the direction of an independent board, Knowledge Centre was established by BHP and SaskPower with a mandate to advance the global understanding and deployment of large-scale CCS to reduce global GHG emissions. The Knowledge Centre provides the know-how to implement large-scale CCS projects as well as CCS optimization through the base learnings from both the fully-integrated Boundary Dam 3 CCS Facility and the comprehensive second-generation CCS study, known as the Shand CCS Feasibility Study. For more info: https://ccsknowledge.com/

Contact:
Jodi Woollam
Head of Communications & Media Relations
jwoollam@ccsknowledge.com
T: +1-306-565-5956 / M: +1-306-520-3710