CO2 emissions mitigation from power generation using capture technologies

Technologies for capturing CO2 from power generation, that is separating CO2 from other components in a gaseous or liquid mixture, are examined from a triple point of view: of impacts of capture on performance, of costs and of pollutant emission. It is shown that there is currently no winner among the main three capture options, namely post-combustion removal of CO2 from flue gas, pre-combustion carbon removal from fuel and from oxy-combustion power systems. Although postand pre-combustion capture is an available technology in industrial applications, it must still be scaled up to the size of large power plants and from that point of view the three options are not at the same stage of development. Pilot plants are expected to be in operation in the period 2010-2015, especially in European funded projects, Europe being in the forefront of reducing strongly CO2 emissions from power plants.