Techno-economic and Environmental Analysis of Calcium Carbonate Looping for CO2 Capture from a Pulverised Coal-Fired Power Plant

Pulverised coal-fired (PC) power plants are among the major technologies used to generate electricity for power generation around the world. Coal-fired systems are generally considered to have high greenhouse gas emission intensities, apart from power plants that employ CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technology. As a technology option, calcium carbonate looping can be employed to remove carbon dioxide from the PC flue gas streams. Calcium carbonate looping is an attractive technology due to relatively low efficiency penalties. To better understand the performance characteristics and benefits of such a system integration, the ECLIPSE modelling software is used to perform a techno-economic analysis of the calcium carbonate looping system integrated in to an existing hard coal power plant. The overall system efficiency and the CO2 capture rate is evaluated based on a mass and energy balance calculation as part of the modelling. The capital costs, and maintenance and operating costs are estimated according to a bottom-up approach using the information gained through a mass and energy balance. The SimaPro software is used to perform a life cycle analysis of the capture technology to determine its environmental impact. The calcium carbonate looping system is also compared to other CCS solutions