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COCO22 Capture Ready Power PlantsCapture Ready Power Plants

John Davison

IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG)(john.davison@ieaghg.org)

CCT2009 Conference, Dresden, Germany, 18th-21st May 2009

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Outline of PresentationOutline of Presentation• Definition of capture ready• Implications for power plants technologies • Economics of capture ready pre-investments• Capture ready policies

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Capture Ready Definition Capture Ready Definition • A CO2 capture-ready power plant is a plant which can

include CO2 capture when the necessary regulatory or economic drivers are in place.

• The aim of building plants that are capture-ready is to reduce the risk of ‘carbon lock-in’ or ‘stranded assets’.

Source: CO2 capture ready plants, IEA GHG report 2007/4, May 2007

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Carbon LockCarbon Lock--in and Stranded Assetsin and Stranded Assets

Time

$/t C

O2

Retrofit CCS, if possible.If not, continue to operate the plant and emit CO2- Carbon Lock-in

Shut down plant without CCS - Stranded Asset

Cost of CCS

Power plant marginal revenue

Carbon price

Present

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Why not Include Full CCS Now? Why not Include Full CCS Now? • Integrated CCS at power plants needs to be

demonstrated• CCS costs are high for demonstration plants• Carbon prices are low• CO2 emission reduction is not a priority in some

countries

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Capture Ready Requirements Capture Ready Requirements • ‘Essential’ requirements

• Carry out a design study on retrofit of CO2 capture• Include sufficient space and access for the additional

facilities that would be required• Identify reasonable route(s) to storage of CO2

• The developer should identify other known factors in their control that would prevent installation and operation of CO2 capture

• Optional pre-investments• To reduce the downtime and cost of capture retrofit• To optimise the plant performance after retrofit

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Space and Access Space and Access • Space for new equipment etc

• CO2 scrubber, oxygen plant, CO2 compressor etc • It may be possible to install some equipment off-site

• Electrical distribution, cooling water, water treating etc• Extra space needed during construction

• Space for access within the existing plant• Pipe work and tie-ins with existing equipment

• Health and safety barrier zones• Additional generating capacity, if required

• CO2 capture usually reduces net power output • By about 20% for current post-combustion and oxy-combustion

• May need to build new capacity to maintain the site power output

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COCO22 Capture Ready PlantCapture Ready Plant

Proposed ‘capture ready’ power plant at Tilbury Courtesy of RWE Npower

‘Capture Ready’

area

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COCO22 Capture Ready PlantCapture Ready Plant

Tilbury plant with capture (some details omitted) Courtesy of RWE Npower

Capture plant

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Routes to CORoutes to CO22 StorageStorage• Identify suitable storage sites or regions• Identify transport routes to the storage site

• Rights of way for pipelines• Safety issues• Proximity to other potential CO2 sources

• Major economies of scale for CO2 transport

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Optional Capture Ready PreOptional Capture Ready Pre--InvestmentsInvestments• Provision for expansion of the control system, electricity

distribution, and cooling capacity and oversizing pipe racks etc• These investments may have low costs and high returns

• Maximizing thermal efficiency• Capture affects the trade-off between efficiency and

capital cost • Select a process that is well suited to capture

• e.g. IGCC instead of pulverised coal• A major investment - may not be worthwhile

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PrePre--Investments Investments -- PostPost--Combustion CaptureCombustion Capture

Fuel Boiler Solvent scrubbing

FGD

Air

Power

CO2 to storage

N2, O2, H2O to atmosphere

Steam turbine

Steam

CO2compression

LP Steam

High efficiency SOx removal to meet the needs of a CO2 scrubber

Ability to upgrade the efficiency

Ability to extract low pressure steam for CO2 solvent regeneration

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PrePre--Investments Investments -- OxyOxy--Combustion Combustion

Fuel Boiler Purification & compression

FGD and cooling

Air separation

Air

Power

Oxygen

CO2

VentRecycled flue gas

Steam turbine

SteamDesign to cope with conditions after

retrofit (if FGD is still required)

Minimise air in-leakage

Design ducts and fans to enable them to be re-used

Design to use low grade heat for feed-water heating

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PrePre--Investments Investments -- IGCC IGCC

Coal Gasification Acid gas removal

Shift conversion

Air separation

Combined cycle

Air

Fuel gas (mainly H2)

NitrogenPower

Oxygen

CO2CO2compression

Sulphur

Air

H2S

Air

Sulphur recovery

Choose a GT that can burn hydrogen

Oversize the gasifiers, to fully load the gas turbines after retrofit

Pre-install shift converters

Oversize the ASU

Design for addition of CO2 separation

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Reasons for not PreReasons for not Pre--InvestingInvesting

• Uncertainties• Economic discounting

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UncertaintiesUncertainties• If or when will capture retrofit be required?

• Future values of CO2 emission permits• Regulatory requirements

• How will capture technologies develop in future?• Incremental improvements• Possibility of substantially better technologies• Will the capture ready investment be for an obsolete

technology?

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Economic DiscountingEconomic Discounting

• Economic resources are worth less in the future than at present

• It may be several years before capture retrofit is required

Major pre-investment is unlikely to be worthwhile if it will be a long time before capture is retrofitted

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 5 10 15 20 25

Year

Net

Pre

sent

Val

ue

5%10%15%

Discount rate

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Implementation of Capture ReadyImplementation of Capture Ready• Utilities will probably choose to make their new plants

capture ready anyway if there is an expectation of high future CO2 prices or regulatory limits• Capture ready is low cost• A non-capture ready plant would be high risk investment

• Include in licensing requirement for new plants

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EU CCS DirectiveEU CCS Directive• Will have to be implemented by Member States by spring 2011• For plants > 300 MWe licensed after then, the operator will have to

have assessed whether the following conditions are met:• Suitable storage sites are available• Transport facilities are technically and economically feasible• It is technically and economically feasible to retrofit for CO2 capture

• If these conditions are met, space for capture and compression should be set aside at the site

• Capture readiness is not necessarily required

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UK UK • UK Government consultation on ‘Towards Capture and Storage’,

including capture readiness • Results published April 2009• Government’s intention not to consent any future applications for new

combustion plants at or over 300MWe unless they are capture ready• Space to be provided on site, or in some cases nearby• Take account of health and safety implications • Operator to report back every 2 years on their capture ready status

• 29th April government announcement on CCS• No new coal plants without CCS demonstration from day one• Up to 4 CCS demonstration plants• Full scale retrofit of CCS within 5 years of the technology being

independently judged as technically and commercially proven

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GermanyGermany• TÜV Nord Standard TN-CC 006• Voluntary assessment of power plant capture readiness• Similar to the requirements in the IEA GHG definition with

some minor additions and clarifications

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ConclusionsConclusions• Capture Ready can reduce the risk of Stranded Assets and

Carbon Lock-in• Essential Capture Ready requirements are:

• Carry out a study of capture retrofit options• Leave space and access for capture retrofit • Identify reasonable route(s) to storage of CO2

• Some optional pre-investment may be worthwhile• Major pre-investment is unlikely to be worthwhile unless capture is

going to be retrofitted soon after start-up of the power plant• Capture Ready should help to facilitate CCS• Capture Ready is not a substitute for capture