NEAR-TERM AND LONG-TERM CARBON DIOXIDE SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL IN THE UNITED STATES USING BIO-ENERGY WITH CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
Author(s)
Kasturi, Abishek
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Collections
Supplementary to:
Permanent Link
Abstract
According to the special report titled “Global Warming of 1.5C” by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2018, the world must achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to limit the rise in mean global temperature to 1.5°C. CO2 capture technologies from flue gas are being developed to help reach this goal. Such technologies include chemical absorption using amines, temperature and pressure swing adsorption, membrane separation, and biological-based separation. CO2 capture from flue gas, however, can only help us reduce CO2 emissions. Additional, negative-emissions technologies are needed to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and thus reduce the atmospheric CO2 concentration. One such method of removing CO2 from the atmosphere is Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), which employs biomass-fired power plants with the capability to capture 90% of incoming CO2 through chemical absorption with monoethanolamine (MEA) for example. This thesis evaluates the potential of implementing BECCS power plants in the U.S. through powerplant performance simulations. Powerplant performance and economic estimates were modelled using the Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM). Calculations in this thesis show that under a near-term scenario, roughly 181 million tonnes of CO2 can be sequestered annually in the U.S., and under long-term scenarios, there is the potential to capture 737 million tonnes of CO2 annually. Electricity costs range between $140 and $180 per MWh in the near-term, and between $130 and $180 per MWh in long-term scenarios. CO2 avoidance costs were found to range between $62 and $137 per tonne of CO2 in the near-term, and between $45 and $85 per tonne CO2 in the long-term.
Sponsor
Date
2020-12-07
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Thesis