ECO2: Post-combustion or Oxyfuel–A comparison between coal power plants with integrated CO2 capture

AbstractThis paper presents a study of two integrated processes for power production with CO2 capture : a post-combustion process involving an amine based CO2 capture unit; and an oxyfuel process involving air separation units, O2 combustion boiler and flue gas purification. These two integrated processes have been compared to a base case air-fired CFB boiler using bituminous international coal as fuel. A complete techno-economical study has been carried out, and electricity production costs have been compared to the base case. The results were also expressed in equivalent CO2 penalties (€/ tco2) as an economic limit to allow CCS processes to be economical against CO2 taxes.It has been found out that both zero emissions post-combustion and oxyfuel integrated process have a big impact on the power plant economics. The study showed oxy- and post-combustion processes led to similar CO2 penalty: around 44€/ tco2 for postcombustion capture and 46€/tco2 for the oxyfuel process