Greek Lignite-Fired Power Plants with CO₂ Capture for the Electricity Generation Sector

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the performance of a 300 - 400 MWel steam power plant fired with low quality lignite, representative of the Greek electricity generation sector, integrating Carbon Capture and Sequestration technologies (CCS). The CCS technologies under investigation are the oxy-fuel and the chemical absorption with amines, since they are considered to dominate in the demonstration period of the CCS application, which starts at 2015. The basic power plant design is demonstrated by taking into account the special features of the oxy-fuel and amine scrubbing technologies. Due to the resulting efficiency penalty, it is of utmost importance to apply any available measure to improve the power plant’s performance. The optimisation options of the thermodynamic design, as well as the economic feasibility study are presented. The electricity production cost is expressed as the minimum electricity selling price which renders the integration of CO2 capture equipment economically viable. In addition, the cost of avoided CO2 relative to the reference plant with no CO2 control is determined, as it is a widely used economic indicator of the cost for the prevention of CO2 emissions. The economic evaluation of the power plants refers to the demonstration period of the CO2 capture technologies (year 2015) and the period of commercial maturity (year 2030).