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Technology Collaboration Programme by IEA

CO₂ Capture Ready Power Plants

Robin Irons, E.ON, UK, Gnanapandithan Sekkappan, Doosan Babcock, UK, Raghbir Panesar, Doosan Babcock, UK, Jon Gibbins, Imperial College London, UK, Mathieu Lucquiaud, Imperial College London, UK

Citation: IEAGHG, "CO₂ Capture Ready Power Plants", 2007-04, May 2007.

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Publication Overview

The purpose of this study is to review the technical options that may be available to retrofit a capture technology to the various configurations of power plants that may be built in coming years and to identify (a) necessary and (b) potentially economically attractive options for pre-investment in those plants to make retrofit economically feasible.

Publication Summary

A study of options for CO₂ capture retrofit and potential pre-investments should be carried out as part of the process of qualifying a new power plant as “capture ready”.

The key issues for capture ready plants are inclusion of sufficient space and access for the additional facilities that would be required and identification of reasonable route(s) to storage of CO₂. Pre-investment in these essential capture ready features is in general expected to be relatively inexpensive.

Optional further pre-investments could be made to reduce the cost and downtime for CO₂ capture retrofit. Some relatively minor pre-investments could significantly improve the ease of capture retrofit.

Opportunities for substantial economically attractive pre-investments are expected to be limited, unless capture is going to be retrofitted relatively soon after start-up of the power plant. This is mainly because of the effects of economic discounting and uncertainties regarding future technological developments, regulatory requirements and prices of carbon credits.

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