Technical Review
8th Post Combustion Capture Conference Summary
- 10 March 2026
- Capture
- Event Proceedings
Techno-Economic Evaluation of Retrofitting ccs in a market pulp mill and an integrated pulp and board mill
Kristin Onarheim, Petteri Kangas , Sakari Kaijaluoto , Ville Hankalin , Stanley Santos
Citation: IEAGHG, "Techno-Economic Evaluation of Retrofitting ccs in a market pulp mill and an integrated pulp and board mill ", 2016-10, December 2016.
Publication Overview
This study assessed two hypothetical reference mills situated in the west coast of Finland as a basis for evaluation. The pulp mill (Base Case 1A) has an annual production of 800,000 adt of bleached softwood Kraft pulp (BSKP) which is sold as market pulp. The integrated pulp and board mill (Base Case 1B) has an annual production of 400,000 adt of board. This mill also consumes 60,000 adt/y of the softwood Kraft pulp that it produces, thus only 740,000 adt/y of BSKP is sold to the market. This study aims to evaluate the performance and cost of retrofitting post-combustion CO₂ capture technology to the pulp mill and understand its implication on the mill’s operation in terms of fuel balance, utility requirements (i.e. steam and electricity balance) and the mill’s financial performance.
Publication Summary
- The IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) have been studying the performance and cost of integrating CO₂ Capture and Storage (CCS) into the energy intensive industries. To date, the programme has assessed the economics of deploying CCS in five different energy intensive industries. The present study extends this work to include the pulp and paper industry, with another study on the oil refining industry underway.
- The pulp and paper industry accounts for some 1.1% of the global CO₂ emissions. These emissions arise mainly from its recovery boiler, multi-fuel boiler and lime kiln. The majority of this CO₂ originates from the combustion of biomass, which renders it as carbon neutral if the biomass used as raw materials of the pulp production is grown and harvested in a sustainable manner. If the CO₂ emission from pulp and paper industry is captured and permanently stored, then this could be considered as a potential carbon sink. As such, the pulp and paper industry could be regarded as an industry with potential for the early demonstration of both bio-CCS and industrial CCS.
- This study provides an assessment of the performance and costs of retrofitting CCS in a Nordic Kraft Pulp Mill and an Integrated Pulp and Board Mill. Different configurations of capturing CO₂ (90%) from the flue gases of the recovery boiler, multi-fuel boiler and lime kiln were examined. For the standalone pulp mill, the excess steam produced by the mill is sufficient to cover the additional demand from the CCS plant. For an integrated pulp and board mill, there is less excess steam available for the CCS plant, therefore the addition an auxiliary boiler is required.
- The retrofit of an amine based post-combustion CO₂ capture plant into a pulp mill increases the steam demand by 1 to 8 GJ/air dried tonne (adt) of pulp, depending on the volume of the flue gas to be treated. This translates to a reduction in the amount of electricity exported to the grid by 0.1 – 1.0 MWh/adt pulp for the Kraft pulp mill, and by 0.1 – 0.5 MWh/adt pulp for an integrated pulp and board mill. This corresponds to between 6 and 80% reduction, and between 10 and 72% reduction in the volume of electricity exported for the Kraft pulp mill and the integrated pulp and board mill respectively.
- The %CO₂ avoided could be in the range of 9 to 90% for the Kraft Pulp Mill and 9 to 73% for the Integrated Pulp and Board Mill (as compared to the corresponding Base Cases). If the emitted biogenic CO₂ is recognised as “carbon neutral” and the captured biogenic CO₂ as “carbon negative”, then the %CO₂ avoided could be in the range of 310 to 2340%.
- The retrofit of CCS increases the levelised cost of pulp (LCOP) produced by the market (standalone) pulp mill in the range of 20 to 154 €/adt (4 – 30%), and increases the LCOP produced by the integrated pulp and board mill in the range of 22 to 191 €/adt (4 – 37%). This translates to a CO₂ avoided cost (CAC) between 62 and 92 €/t CO₂ for the pulp mill and between 82 and 92 €/t CO₂ for the integrated pulp and board mill.
- This study assessed the sensitivity of the cost if incentives to the renewable electricity credit, CO₂ taxes, and negative emissions credit are provided. It can be concluded that the most favourable route to encourage the pulp industry to deploy bio-CCS is by providing sufficient incentives for their negative emissions
Our most recent publications
Our authoritative, peer-reviewed publications cover topics that include carbon capture, transport, storage, monitoring, regulation, and more.
View All Publications
Get the latest CCS news and insights
Get essential news and updates from the CCS sector and the IEAGHG by email.
Can’t find what you are looking for?
Whatever you would like to know, our dedicated team of experts is here to help you. Just drop us an email and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Contact Us Now