Work Package 3

Work Package 3: Case Studies for Carbon Dioxide Capture

Work Package 3 recently produced a detailed internal report defining ground rules for the capture plant case studies.  This document was produced after discussions at a series of meetings in China and the UK from April to June. The case studies will cover a wide range of post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel capture technologies.  To ensure that the plant performance results can be compared properly the same site conditions and standard coal properties will be assumed for all studies.  All of the power plants will also be of a similar size, between 750 MW and 1,000 MW output.
 
Wherever possible, similar sub-component specifications and costs will be assumed for the basic non-capture parts of the plants, so that costs can also be compared on a common basis.  Electricity cost assessments will be based on standard international practice using International Energy Agency (IEA) recommendations, but placed entirely in the context of China’s power plant market conditions.
 
Work on CO₂ pipelines is also under way, and discussions have started with Work Package 4 to identify representative routes in China between possible power plant locations and CO₂ storage sites.  This will allow pipeline systems and the associated compressors and liquid CO₂ pumps to be designed and costed.
 
After a break for the Olympics, meetings in China will start again in September as partners work together to develop designs for their plants.