Techno-economic performance and challenges of applying CO2 capture in the industry: A case study of five industrial plants

Abstract

To date, literature often presents generic results on the techno-economic performance of CO2 capture in industry. Insufficient knowledge is available on the impact of site-specific factors on the feasibility of CO2 capture at industrial plant level. This article presents a techno-economic analysis and an inventory of potential implementation and operational challenges related to the three main CO2 capture technologies applied at industrial plant level for the short term (2020–2025) and long term (2040–2050). Five industrial plants from various industrial sectors (a medium and large sized petroleum refinery, a small and medium sized chemical plant, and a large hydrogen plant) in the Netherlands were used for this study. The results show the lowest CO2 avoidance costs for the refineries (24–57 €/t) and chemical plants (37–124 €/t) when operated in oxyfuel combustion mode, both for the short and long term, although post-combustion is economically preferable for the smallest chemical plant (117 €/t) in the short term. For the hydrogen plant, avoidance costs (67 €/t) are lowest when capturing CO2 solely from the high-pressure process gas. For the short term cases, spatial constraints on existing plant sites could increase the indicated CO2 avoidance costs, especially for post-combustion capture; for the long term cases, new-built capture ready process units, plant integration and optimized utilities are expected to lower the avoidance costs for all three capture technologies.