Techno-Economic Modeling & Conceptual Design Optimization of CCS Facilities using Value Engineering & Multi-Objective Stochastic Algorithm

Abstract Profound scientific insight into the carbon cycle and deeper understanding of the potential consequences associated with risks of climate change, along with a recognized public awareness about the link between global warming and human activity, has put the issue of finding and approving mitigation actions in the top national & international agendas. On the other hand, the ever increasing need of energy; necessary for economic growth, and the expected strategical reliance on fossil fuels and coal as a major energy source in the foreseeable future, will definitely lead to a dramatic increase in carbon generation. Eventually, an effective mitigating action can only be achieved by capturing the carbon release, or emission, to atmosphere rather than by cutting-down carbon generation. Even though the full scale deployment of integrated CCS facilities is still immature, yet it is very promising. The technical feasibility of the component technologies has been proven successful. Applications such as Carbon Capture in large ammonia plants, CO2 transportation via pipelines and transport ships and Carbon injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) are already in operation. The real challenge for constructing & operating CCS facilities is financial & political rather than technical. Huge investments are required globally on a large scale and need to be economically and socially justified. It is estimated that building an associated Carbon Capturing facility along with a Power Generation plant may double the capital cost and increase the running cost up to 1.5 times, as a consequence it is thought that the price of electric power to be paid by the end-users will increase by at least 50%. This economic “penalty”, sensed at the short term, will raise serious public concerns. Thus there is an urgent need to find feasible financial models for deploying CCS technology with the minimum cost possible. Such a task requires the design optimization of CCS facilities based on techno-economic models. Techno-economic models based on mathematical formulation for the partial components of CCS facilities are readily available in the literature, but still there is a necessity to integrate these component models together in a one analytical model to view the picture as a whole, after all, the complete CCS train will be operating synchronously as one train entity. Once such an integrated model is available, an optimization problem can be formulated, and a technically feasible and financially attractive solution can be found to achieve the minimum total cost with the optimum design variables. Cutting down costs will be enhanced with time, following the trend of the learning curve in this field. This paper presents a methodology for implementing design optimization of CCS facilities at the conceptual level by simulating various combinatory scenarios, for finding the most economically attractive & technically feasible solution.