July 12, 2010—" The Status of CO2 Capture and Storage Technology ,"

July 12, 2010 —" The Status of CO2 Capture and Storage Technology ,"

Edward Rubin, of Carnegie Mellon University, gave an overview of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture and storage (CCS) technologies applicable to combustion-based and gasification-based electric power plants that are fueled by coal, natural gas, biomass, or other carbonaceous fuels. He summarized the performance and cost of current systems along with the major factors that affect these parameters. Several measures of cost were discussed, including capital cost, added cost of electricity generation, cost per ton of CO 2 captured, and cost per ton of CO 2 avoided. The seminar also discussed the effects of CO 2 capture technology on overall plant efficiency as well as the impacts on other environmental emissions. Rubin presented a range of CO 2 transport and storage costs to illustrate the dependency of total plant-level costs on geographical and geological characteristics and variability. The outlook for lower-cost CCS technologies also was examined and Rubin presented a publicly available modeling tool for estimating CCS costs.