THE FULL FUEL-CYCLE OF CO2 CAPTURE AND DISPOSAL - CAPTURE AND DISPOSAL TECHNOLOGIES

As part of the Full Fuel Cycle Study sponsored by the IEA Greenhouse G as R&D Programme, design and costing exercises have been carried out o n three fossil fuelled power plant options. The options considered wer e: 1. A natural gas fired combined cycle gas turbine plant (NGCC) with chemical solvent scrubbing of the flue gas and gas field disposal of the CO2. 2. A coal fired Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) with shift reactor and physical solvent scrubbing of the fuel gas cou pled to ocean disposal of the CO2. 3. A pulverised coal fired supercri tical steam turbine plant with selective catalytic NOx reduction and f lue gas desulphurisation with associated CO2 capture from the atmosphe re by a managed forest. Two aspects of the fuel cycles were considered ; the power plant, defined as those activities which take place at the site, and the other supporting activities which take place elsewhere. The approach taken to the evaluation of the ''private costs'' of the Full Fuel Cycles was to carry out a conventional economic analysis of the power plant and then to make additions and alterations to accommod ate the other supporting activities. The outputs of the study were: 1. Process definitions including overall schematics, descriptions, data sheets, and flow diagrams. 2. Mass and energy balances of the Full Fue l Cycles. 3. Capital and operating cost estimates. 4. Economic analyse s of the Full Fuel Cycles resulting in private costs. 5. Emissions inv entories of the Full Fuel Cycles. 6. Sensitivity studies examining the effects of different fuel sources, alternative CO2 disposal methods, fuel prices, and changes to DCF rate of return. The technical and econ omic evaluation of each of the fuel cycles was carried out on a consis tent design basis. This enabled the estimation of the external costs t o be carried out on a consistent basis in the second part of this stud y.