Techno-economic evaluation of oxy-combustion coal-fired power plants

Increasing attention is being paid to the oxycombustion technique of coal-fired power plants because CO 2 produced from fossil fuel combustion can be captured and sequestrated by it. However, there are many questions about the economic properties of the oxy-combustion technique. In this paper, a detailed techno-economic evaluation study was performed on three typical power plants (2 × 300 MW subcritical, 2 × 600 MW supercritical, 2 × 1000 MW ultra supercritical), as conventional air fired and oxycombustion options in China, by utilizing the authoritative data published in 2010 for the design of coal-fired power plants. Techno-economic evaluation models were set up and costs of electricity generation, CO 2 avoidance costs as well as CO 2 capture costs, were calculated. Moreover, the effects of CO 2 tax and CO 2 sale price on the economic characteristics of oxycombustion power plants were also considered. Finally, a sensitivity analysis for parameters such as coal sample, coal price, air separation unit price, flue gas treatment unit price, CO 2 capture efficiency, as well as the air excess factor was conducted. The results revealed that: (1) because the oxy-combustion technique has advantages in thermal efficiency, desulfurization efficiency and denitration efficiency, oxy-combustion power plants will reach the economic properties of conventional air fired power plants if, (a) the CO 2 emission is taxed and the high purity CO 2 product can be sold, or (b) there are some policy preferences in financing and coal price for oxy-combustion power plants, or (c) the power consumption and cost of air separation units and flue gas treatment units can be reduced; (2) from subcritical plants to supercritical and finally ultra-supercritical plants, the economics are improving, regardless of whether they are conventional air fired power plants or oxy-combustion power plants.