Technoeconomic Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Conversion Projects in a Canadian Context
Date
2021-11
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Abstract
The emerging field of CO2 conversion has the dual goals of reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and creating economic value from a waste. The technologies involved may enable the decarbonization of industrial process emissions through the displacement of incumbent production methods. However, in the literature, variable process scopes and assumptions reduce the value of direct comparisons between published results. To enable meaningful comparisons, this thesis integrates techno-economic models for amine-based CO2 capture and proton exchange membrane H2 production with unified financial assumptions to harmonize the inputs and scopes of proposed conversion technologies. The results of 19 process models are harmonized using regional utility prices and emissions intensities in six major industrial regions of Canada. The studied products include methanol, ethanol, formic acid, synthetic oil, and mineral carbonates. The results show that CO2 conversion projects are highly dependant on the price and emissions intensity of the electricity supply, but also that differences in simulation result in high variability for cost and emissions. For example, the levelized cost of production for methanol from CO2 ranged from $645 to $1775 USD/ton (2020) when harmonized, with an emissions range of -1.01 to 1.89 tCO2e/t product. Harmonization resulted in an average increase of 27% in levelized cost of production from the published estimates. In Canada, the provinces of Quebec and Manitoba were found to be the most appealing regions for the deployment of CO2 conversion technologies. In the Quebec scenario, 16 of the 19 models were found to be environmentally beneficial in comparison to the incumbent production method, while only four were found to have a lower cost.
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Keywords
Carbon Conversion, Carbon Capture, Carbon Dioxide, CO2, Techno-Economics, Life Cycle Assessment, Harmonization, CCUS, CCT, Decarbonization
Citation
Lincoln, B. (2021). Technoeconomic assessment of Carbon Dioxide conversion projects in a Canadian context (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.