Developing Minimum Cost Targets for Carbon Reduction in Different Geographical Regions

Abstract

The increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, in the atmosphere has raised concern toward the environmental impact of global warming. Consequently, global industrial and political commitments have been established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon reduction can be achieved either by increasing the efficiency of the existing processes, using renewable sources of power instead of burning fossil fuels, or through implementing carbon capture, utilization, and/or sequestration technologies. Unfortunately, the implementation of carbon reduction projects is minor compared to the existing opportunities. For projects to be implemented, it is very important to establish their economic feasibility. Given the different access to renewable energy, utilization, and storage options, CO2 emissions reduction would exhibit very different economics depending on the location. The implementation of carbon reduction technologies should be performed in a strategic approach that yields minimal investment and operating costs. This work incorporates different options for renewable energy sources, carbon utilization, and/or carbon sequestration. The aim is to plan an optimal arrangement of these technologies for implementation in different geographic locations such as Norway, Japan, and Qatar. Process Integration techniques used to optimize the operation of chemical processes have been developed to support decisions and organize the planning of carbon reduction projects. Carbon abatement cost curves have been applied as a policy and decision support tool allowing easy comparison between different technologies and pathways. This work tries to find the minimum cost of mitigating emissions through applying Process Integration principles on the different geographical regions and constructing the corresponding cost curves. The results will allow understanding the opportunities for carbon reduction under the economic constraints.