# Presentation: 098167

## The Future of Coal:  Addressing Carbon and Other Environmental Concerns

- 2006 EIA Energy Outlook and Modeling Conference
- Howard Herzog
- MIT
- March 27, 2006

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## MIT Coal Study

- Interdisciplinary study
- Led by John Deutsch and Ernie Moniz
- Follow-on from the 2003 study “The Future of Nuclear Power”
- Looks out through 2050
- Expected to be completed this spring and released this summer

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Framing the Issue

- Coal is relatively cheap and abundant
- Criteria pollutant targets (SOx, NOx, particulates, Hg) can be met at reasonable costs through at least 2020 and probably well beyond
- Every silver lining has a touch of gray – for coal it is climate change concerns
- CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is the technology that could allow coal use to expand even in a greenhouse gas constrained world

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Overview

- What is Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)?
- How does capture work?
- Geological storage – is it safe and effective?
- How much does CCS cost?

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Have you heard of or read about any of the following in the past year? 

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage

- Accepted September 26, 2005 -- www.ipcc.ch

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## What is Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)?

*Carbon dioxide (CO**2**) capture and storage (CCS) is a process consisting of separation of CO**2** from industrial and energy-related sources, transport to a storage location, and long-term isolation from the atmosphere. *

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## CCS - Sources

- Hydrocarbons

- Sequestration

- CO2

- CO2

- CO2

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## How does capture work?

*There are different types of CO**2** capture systems: post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel combustion.** *

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Approaches to CO2 SeparationPilot/Commercial Activities

| Approach | Coal | Gas |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Post-combustion | Exists for Slip Streams
CO2 for Commercial Markets  | Exists for Slip Streams
CO2 for Commercial Markets  |
| Oxygen | Vattenfall’s 30 MWth pilot near Berlin
(approved) |  Total’s retrofit of existing boiler in southwest France
(approved) |
| Pre-combustion | FutureGen (275 MWe) in US
(under study) | BP’s DF1 in Scotland
(under study) |

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## CO2 Capture at an Industrial Process

*Source: Mitsubishi*

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## CO2 Capture at a Coal-Fired Power Plant

*Source: ABB Lummus*

- CO2 Capture at a Coal-Fired Power Plant

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Geological storage – is it safe and effective?

*Storage of CO**2** in deep, onshore or offshore, geological formations uses many of the same technologies that have been developed by the oil and gas industry and has been proven to be economically feasible under specific conditions for oil and gas fields and saline formations, but not yet for storage in unminable coal beds.*

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## In Salah Gas Processing Plant

**Import Gas Pipeline from Teguentour and Reg**

**Export Gas Pipeline to Hassi R’Mel & Europe   (1 BCF/d)**

**CO2 Storage Pipeline to Krechba**

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Geological storage – is it safe and effective?

*Observations from engineered and natural analogues as well as models suggest that the fraction retained in appropriately selected and managed geological reservoirs is very likely to exceed 99% over 100 years, and is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.*
*For well-selected, designed and managed geological storage sites, the vast majority of the CO2 will gradually be immobilized by various trapping mechanisms and, in that case, could be retained for up to millions of years. Because of these mechanisms, storage could become more secure over longer timeframes. *

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Trapping Mechanisms and Increasing Storage Security with Time

- Storage security depends on a combination of physical and geochemical trapping
- Over time, residual CO2 trapping, solubility trapping and mineral trapping increase

- Courtesy Sally Benson, LBNL

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

**Notes:**
Within these formations there are a number of trapping mechanisms that have been proposed – and it is concluded that in general storage security depends on a combination of physical and geochemical trapping.
Initially, the most important mechanism is physical trapping below the caprock.
Over time, other mechanisms begin to trap CO2.
Dissolution into the formations fluids
Residual trapping of CO2 in the pore spaces
And conversion of CO2 to carbonate minerals
Two important conclusions
The contribution of the secondary trapping mechanisms can be large
The consequence of this is that storage security will increase over time

## How much does CCS cost?

- Carbon capture and storage technologies exhibit significant penetration in the electric power sector at carbon prices above $30/tCO2 (>$100/tC).
- 80% associated with capture/compression
- 20% associated with transport/injection
- Targets of opportunity exist today at lower costs
- Low/no capture costs (industrial by-product)
- Commercial value for CO2 (e.g., EOR)

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## How much does CCS cost?

| Type of Capture Plant | Cost
($/tCO2avoided) |
| --- | --- |
| Post-combustion Supercritical PC | 45 |
| Oxyfuel Supercritical PC | 35 |
| Pre-Combustion IGCC | 29 |

- Assumptions:
-  - Uses technology available today
-  - Assumes an nth plant (versus 1st of a kind)
-  - Transport/storage cost is $5/tCO2

- PC = Pulverized Coal; IGCC = Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Moving Forward

- Two biggest challenges for CCS:
- Reducing capture costs
- Addressing the regulatory and associated issues of storage
- CCS is not a silver bullet, but should be thought of as part of a portfolio of climate change mitigation options

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

## Contact Information

- Howard Herzog
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE)
- Room E40-447
- Cambridge, MA  02139
- Phone:  617-253-0688
- E-mail:  hjherzog@mit.edu
- Web Site:  sequestration.mit.edu

- Howard Herzog / MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment