Technical and economic prospects of coal- and biomass-fired integrated gasification facilities equipped with CCS over time

Abstract This study analyses the impacts of technological improvements and increased operating experience on the techno-economic performance of integrated gasification (IG) facilities. The facilities investigated produce electricity (IGCC) or FT-liquids with electricity as by-product (IG–FT). Results suggest that a state-of-the-art (SOTA) coal-fired IGCC without CO2 capture has electricity production costs of 17 €/GJ (60 €/MWh) with the potential to decrease to 11 €/GJ (40 €/MWh) in the long term. Specific direct CO2 emissions may drop from about 0.71 kg CO2/kWh to 0.59 kg CO2/kWh. If CO2 is captured, production costs may increase to 23 €/GJ (83 €/MWh), with the potential to drop to 14 €/GJ (51 €/MWh) in the long term. As a result, CO2 avoidance costs would decrease from 35 €/t CO2 to 18 €/t CO2. The efficiency penalty due to CCS may decrease from 8.8%pt to 3.7%pt. CO2 emissions can also be reduced by using torrefied biomass (TOPS) instead of coal. Production costs of a SOTA TOPS-fired IGCC without CO2 capture are 18–25 €/GJ (64–92 €/MWh). In the long term, this may drop to 12 €/GJ (44 €/MWh), resulting in CO2 avoidance costs of 7 €/t CO2. The greatest reduction in anthropogenic CO2 emissions is obtained by using biomass combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS). A SOTA TOPS-fired IGCC with CCS has, depending on the biomass price, production costs of 25–35 €/GJ (91–126 €/MWh) with CO2 avoidance costs of 19–40 €/t CO2. These values may decrease to 15 €/GJ (55 €/MWh) and 12 €/t CO2 avoided in the long term. As carbon from biomass is captured, specific direct CO2 emissions are negative and estimated at −0.93 kg CO2/kWh for SOTA and −0.59 kg CO2/kWh in the long term. Even though more carbon is sequested in the future concepts, specific emissions drop due to an increase in the energetic conversion efficiency of the future facilities. New technologies in IG-FT facilities have a slightly smaller impact on production costs. In the long term, production costs of FT-liquids from coal may drop from 13 €/GJ to 9 €/GJ if CO2 is vented and from 15 €/GJ to 10 €/GJ if CCS is applied. The use of TOPS results in 15–23 €/GJ (Vent) and 17–24 €/GJ (CCS) for SOTA facilities. These production costs may drop to 11–18 €/GJ (Vent) and 12–19 €/GJ (CCS) in the long term. Contrary to the IGCC cases, the coal-fired IG-FT facility shows the lowest CO2 avoidance costs. The CO2 emission of coal to FT-liquids with CCS is, however, similar to gasoline/diesel production from crude oil.

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