Integrated Economic Model CO2 Capture, Transport, ECBM and Saline Aquifer Storage

As the world continues to develop plans for addressing climate change induced by elevated levels of CO2, a better understanding of the economics of CCS projects will become more urgent. One promising avenue involves CO2 injection into coal beds for incremental production of methane and storage of CO2. In order to clarify the economic impact of CCS projects, an Integrated Economic Model (IEM) for CCS has been developed. The IEM was designed to simulate the underlying engineering process and resulting economics of post combustion CO2 capture from large fixed emitters, the cost of transport to coal reservoir sinks and prediction of methane production response induced by CO2 injection. Post combustion CO2 capture is modeled in the context of retro-fitting existing CO2 source plants with currently available capture technology consisting of inlet flue gas "wet-lime" desulphurization, CO2 recovery with "hindered amine (MEA)", CO2 compression, pipeline transport to coal reservoir (and saline aquifer) CO2 sinks and the simulation of enhanced methane production from the coal reservoir. A comprehensive database of Alberta coal reservoir parameters was developed and is used by the IEM to predict site specific injection and production performance due to CO2 injection. Estimation of injection and production from the coal is modeled by incorporating a compositional reservoir simulator. CCS project economics is rolled up and reported for the entire CCS project as well as separately for the ECBM project. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved