| Authors |
Khosrow Biglarbigi, INTEK Inc., Hitesh Mohan, INTEK Inc., Marshall Carolus,
INTEK Inc.
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Abstract
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.
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