DISPATCHABLE CCS - Minimizing the Energy Penalty Costs

The study aims at estimating reductions in energy penalty costs of a CO2 capture plant by exploiting price volatility in the electricity markets. The policy implication of this reduced abatement cost could be an increased penetration of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the future. ‘Dispatchable CCS’ offers the plant operator the option to choose a desired CO2 capture operating condition based on current market conditions such as fuel prices, CO2 prices, and electricity prices. It looks at possible design options of this flexibility in the operation of the carbon capture plant with addition of amine storage tanks and vent out pipes. It gives us a brief outline of these flexible design options and the costs associated with them. This is followed by the calculation of Total Costs ($/ton) of CO2 capture in a Dispatchable CCS system. This task is performed at first with constant electricity prices, to stress the importance of electricity price variations on the Total Cost of the system. A parametric analysis on capture rate and electricity price is later used to calculate the NPV for the two flexible designs. The results show lower cost estimates as compared to the full loads capture system, for the two flexible designs in the study. The study looks at some other benefits arising out of a ‘Dispatchable CCS’ system. It also discusses some future considerations to further the goal of this study.