Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
biggest potential to cut carbon emission because
about half global electricity production comes
from coal power plants and coal combustion
has higher carbon dioxide concentration. CCS is
still in the stage of Research, Development and
Demonstration(RD&D) due to technological and
economic challenges as well as uncertain impacts
on environment and public health. Although
large-scale commercial coal power CCS project
with 250 MW capacity or more, has not been
successfully deployed commercially, dozens of
demonstration projects are implemented. Most
of them are undertaken by companies from North
America, Europe, and Australia. That is because
developed countries have financial and technologi-
cal advantages in developing CCS. In 2008, the
G8 countries planned to put billions of dollars to
support 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects
by 2010(E3G, 2009).
stably growing carbon price, the analysis shows
that the cumulative cost gap between the cost of
CCS projects and the carbon credits received from
carbon market ranges in US$20-301 billion in
2010-2050 in the United States. This estimate can
be a reference for China's CCS development cost
in the same period as China and America have the
similar coal power dominance in electricity mar-
ket, close combustion technology and immense
carbon storage capacity. American estimation
shows that developing coal power plants with
CCS in China would be very costly.
CCS Development in China
After becoming the global carbon emission leader
in 2007, China has paid more attention to CCS.
China is one of the biggest potential consumers of
CCS technology. With CCS, China's coal power
industry is supposed to reduce 1.2Gt CO2 a year by
2050(IEAa, 2008). Given that China's coal power
plants account for 82% of carbon emission form
energy use in 2008(EIA, 2008), CCS deployment
in China makes big difference in tackling global
warming in decades to come.
There are quite a few small-scale CCS projects
across different industries, but large coal power
CCS projects in demonstration are mainly two:
GreenGen and Shenhua CtL (Table 1). Both have
strong connection with clean coal technology
because the technology is prioritized in China's
energy security strategy in the medium and long
term (Morse et al., 2009).
Cost of CCS
The calculation of CCS cost is very complicated
because its cost is determined by so many factors,
including power generation technology, carbon
capture approaches, transporting distance and
methods, geological situation, storing approaches,
as well as international carbon market, environ-
mental regulation, and other energy resources'
prices.
An estimate about the cost of Pulverized Coal
with capture and geological storage is US$0.06-
0.10/kWh (IPCC, 2005). China's electricity gen-
eration in 2008 was 3221.798 billion kWh, four
fifth of which came from coal power plants. If two
thirds of coal electricity is generated by the plants
with CCS till 2050, the cumulative investment of
CCS projects would be around US$ 97-161 billion
through to 2050.
Hamilton (2009) builds up an analytical frame-
work to compute the cost of coal power CCS proj-
ects with Supercritical Pulverized Coal(SCPC)
Boiler technology from 2010 to 2050 in the United
Challenges to CCS Development in
China
CCS development in China have some contro-
versial advantages such as inexpensive human
capital, business-friendly regulation and policy,
and rich storage sites. Ironically, to large extent,
these so-called advantages have enabled China
to grow carbon intensified heavy industries in
