The Costs and Benefits of Carbon Capture and Storage
Authors: Biglarbigi Khosrow , Mohan Hitesh , Carolus Marshall John 
Published: May 2011

The growing concerns about meeting increased demand and greenhouse gas emissions has led to increased interest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Industry is already exploring various CCS technologies. The viability of a carbon capture and sequestration industry will be dependent upon the costs of capturing CO2 from industrial and natural sources. This raises the questions: what are the potential costs and benefits of capturing industrial CO2?

To answer these questions, a detailed analysis was conducted. A source-to-sink analysis was done to estimate the total cost of capturing and transporting CO2 from a variety of industrial sources to potential sequestration sites. These include concentrated sources, such as ammonia and ethanol plants, as well as less-concentrated sources including power plants. The considered sequestration sites include value options such as enhanced oil and gas recovery projects, pressure maintenance in gas reservoirs, as well as sequestration in saline aquifers, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, and other geologic media.

This paper will discuss examples of various CO2 capture technologies currently in use and in development. It will also discuss the industrial sources and sequestration options which were considered in the analysis. In addition, the paper will provide estimates of CO2 pipeline transportation costs at various distances between sources and sinks. Finally, the paper will discuss the total estimated cost, inclusive of capture, compression, and transportation, at which the CO2 can be sold to operators of enhanced oil recovery projects or other industries which could utilize the CO2. This analysis concluded that CO2 can be captured and transported approximately 100 miles at costs ranging between $1 and $3.50 per thousand cubic feet.

Introduction

Over the past decades, the United States has continued to be a major emitter of many greenhouse gasses including CO2. To date CO2 is the largest single contributor to the greenhouse-gas buildup in the atmosphere. The EIA reported that in 2008, the U.S. emitted more than 5.75 Billion tons of CO21. This volume, as seen in figure 1, is an increase of more than 20 percent over the 1990 emissions. This has created a growing concern of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources such as power generation, the number one source of CO2 emissions world wide2.

In order to help meet strict future environmental requirements, such as the legal and regulatory framework the NPC called for, CCS technologies will be borrowed from other industries, enhanced and developed. Sequestration can occur for either directly sequestering the CO2 or treating it as a commodity for a variety of industrial uses. Industrial sources of CO2 are the second largest emissions source of greenhouse gas consisting of 27% annually and are subject to capture and use in industrial or sequestration projects. These CO2 streams have food grade, industrial grade, and sequestration applications. This paper discusses the carbon capture technologies, industrial CO2 sources, the costs of transportation, and the key value-added sequestration options for the environment and industry alike.