Carbon capture and storage from energy and industrial emission sources: A Europe-wide supply chain optimisation

Power, steel, cement and refining sectors are currently responsible for the largest shares of carbon dioxide emissions from stationary sources. Carbon capture and storage is envisioned as a key player for decarbonising the power and industry sectors. To achieve a significant penetration of carbon capture and storage technologies, supply chain optimisation has emerged as a crucial research task for designing such complex systems. A Europe-wide carbon capture and storage supply chain is here optimised via a mixed integer linear programming framework. The most significant carbon dioxide emitters (242 power plants, 25 steel mills, 111 cement plants and 59 refineries) are identified on exact geographic coordinates and included as candidates for capture. Capture plants are thoroughly represented in techno-economic terms, considering scale effects and different technological options. Transport and sequestration stages are implemented for either onshore or offshore operation. Different case studies are taken into account to assess carbon capture and storage policies and results determine optimal configurations in terms of costs, scale effects, technology options and network complexity. The minimum CO2 avoidance cost is 52 €/t, which increases by 9% if power plants are excluded from carbon sources. If offshore storage is preferred to onshore, cost raises by about 40%.