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Calcium looping CO 2 capture is a promising technology to reduce CO 2 emissions from cement production. Coal is generally considered the fuel used to drive the calcium looping process as coal is already used as feedstock for cement production. This study assesses the impact of different fuels (coal, natural gas and woody biomass) on the technological and environmental performance of post-combustion calcium looping at a cement plant in North-western Europe. Process modelling is used to determine the impact of the different fuels on the mass and energy balance of the process. Life cycle assessment is carried out to evaluate the environmental performance of the different systems. Results indicate that firing natural gas or biomass instead of coal in an add-on calcium looping process can improve the efficiency of the process, as it decreases the fuel, limestone and electricity consumption. Consequently, while coal fired calcium looping can reduce life cycle climate change potential by 92%, the use of natural gas or biomass can make the process carbon neutral (reduction of 100%) or negative (-169%), respectively. Further research is required to complete the environmental perspective of using alternative fuels, but these results already illustrate a potential low-hanging fruit to improve the environmental performance of post combustion calcium looping in the cement industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a preliminary techno-economic evaluation of CO 2 capture integrated with a cement plant. Two capture technologies are evaluated, monoethanolamine (MEA) post-combustion CO 2 capture and oxy-fuel combustion. Both are considered potential technologies that could contribute to reduction of CO 2 emissions in the cement industry. The study compares these two technologies in terms of technical performance, investment costs, and operational costs. The case study is applied to the one of the largest cement plants in Portugal, Alhandra. The results show that the amount of CO 2 avoided using the post-combustion MEA technology is lower due to additional emissions from reboiler steam production. Moreover, the total capital investment of the post-combustion CO 2 capture system is estimated at 260 M€ 2014 and the annual operation and maintenance costs of around 43 M€ 2014 ; whereas the oxy-fuel combustion CO 2 capture requires a capital investment of about 217 M€ 2014 and 37 M€ 2014 annually for operation and maintenance. This indicates that the oxy-fuel CO 2 capture technology may be a better choice in terms of costs. However, this technology implies higher technical uncertainties concerning integration with the cement plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equipping power plants with carbon capture technologies increases the (cooling) water demand of these plants. This study explores the potential impact of such increase in water demand on the regional water scarcity in Europe. A database with key characteristics of 458 of the largest European power plants is developed and the water use of these power plants is estimated. The water use of the power plants are spatially linked to current water stress index levels. Several prospective scenarios are developed accounting for variations in the future configuration of Europe's electricity generation and different penetration rates of carbon capture technology. Regional water stress index levels are calculated to compare the potential impact of applying carbon capture technologies on the water stress. Preliminary results indicate that the increase of water use due to carbon capture technology is partly expected to be compensated by the deployment of more efficient energy conversion methods which require less cooling water. As such, no significant increase in water stress is expected in the short term (2030), as the carbon capture penetration level in European power plants is expected to be quite low. However, on the long term (2050), large scale instalment of carbon capture technologies in power plants might significantly increase the water stress throughout Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of an environmental due diligence framework developed as part of the EDDiCCUT project, and presents analysis and results from the first test case – MEA based CO 2 capture process. The framework draws upon well-established technical, economic and environmental assessment methods and integrates technical performance, uncertainties, cost estimation and life cycle inventory data to ensure consistency and enhance quality. Results show that for the modelled coal power plant of about 800 MW gross power output, the CO 2 capture system lowers the net efficiency by 10.4% efficiency points and results in a 68% increase in the cost of electricity. Environmental performance evaluated on a broad range of 24 impacts and emission categories indicates a 68% reduction in climate change warming potential with 20-90% increase in other impacts. By comparing the quality of the inventory data used for environmental assessment with the state-of-art data in available life cycle assessment literature, it is found that the due diligence analysis brings significant improvement in the quality of data for certain processes in the value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of a sustainability assessment of deploying carbon capture and storage in European coal power plants in 2030, versus a scenario without CCS. The assessment examines potential impacts in five categories: impacts on human health, impacts on the natural environment, impacts on exhaustive resources, impacts on prosperity and impacts on social well-being. The analysis is undertaken in a prospective framework for the year 2030 under the economic scenarios which are based on the Blue map scenario of the IEA Energy Technology Perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]