Evaluation of CO2 production for enhanced oil recovery from four power plants

Abstract Four coal-based power plants were evaluated with respect to their capacity to produce CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). The plant characteristics were evaluated using energy and exergoeconomic criteria and a robust coal gasification/combustion mathematical model that can predict temperature, converted fraction and particle size distribution for solids have been used for a high pressure fluidized bed. Other models based on Python, Aspen Hysys and Microsoft Excel have been used too. Integrating carbon sequestration reduces the global energy and exergy efficiencies of all power plants (up to 10%). However, the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is a promising technology utilizing coal for generating electrical energy and direct compression of CO2 (11–20 MPa). Similarly, integrating gasification with Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), allows for the pre-combustion capture of CO2, with the advantage of lower initial investment costs. The oxy-fuel combustion (OXY) plant offers high energy and exergy efficiencies, but the exergoeconomic cost of CO2 is increased by 31 USD/t as compared to IGCC. The conventional thermoelectric (CT) plant exhibit disadvantages due to their simple power cycle and the elevated initial investment costs. This suggests that coal-gasification based plants are the best alternatives for CO2 production for EOR and co-generated electrical power.