Economic evaluations of coal-based combustion and gasification power plants with post-combustion CO2 capture using calcium looping cycle

Coal-based power generation sector is facing important changes to implement energy efficient carbon capture technologies to comply with emission reduction targets for transition to low carbon economy. This paper assesses CaL (Calcium Looping) as one of the innovative carbon capture options able to deliver low energy and cost penalties. The work evaluates how the integration of post-combustion calcium looping influences the economics of power plants providing up-dated techno-economic indicators. Coal-based combustion plants operated in both sub- and super-critical steam conditions were evaluated, as well as coal gasification plant using an oxygen-blown entrained-flow gasifier. As benchmark options used to quantify the carbon capture energy and cost penalties, the same power generation technologies were evaluated without CCS (Carbon capture and storage). The power plant concepts investigated in the paper generates around 545–560 MW net power with at least 90% carbon capture rate. Introduction of CaL technology for CO2 capture results in a 24–42% increase of specific capital investment, the O&M costs are increasing with 24–30% and the electricity cost with 39–48% (all compared to non-CCS cases). As the techno-economic results suggest, CaL has good application potential in combustion-based power generation.