Energy Convers. Mgmr Vol. 36, No. 6-9, pp. 827-830, 1995 0196-8904(95)00131-X Copyright 0 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0196-8904/95 $9.50 + 0.00 CARBON DIOXIDE RECOVERY FROM INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES JACCO CM. FARLA, CHRIS A. HENDRIKS, KORNELIS BLOK Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS), Utrecht University Padualaan 14, NL-3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands Abstract - In this study possible techniques of recovering CO, from large-scale industrial processes are assessed. The largest and most concentrated CO, sources in Dutch industry are identified, and the technical and economic feasibility of recovering CO, from these sources is assessed. Nearly 20% of the Dutch industrial CO, emissions may be avoided. The mitigation costs are calculated to be between US$ 8 and US$ 46 per tonne of CO, emission avoided, for the different sectors considered. These cost figures indicate that CO, recovery from industrial processes and from power plants are competitive options. 1. INTRODUCTION To date, little attention has been paid to CO, recovery from industrial processes, although large amounts of CO, are emitted at high concentration by a few industries. It might be possible to recover carbon dioxide from these sources at a lower cost than from power plants. The objective of this study is to make a prelim- inary assessment of the possibilities of carbon dioxide recovery from large-scale industrial production pro- cesses. In this paper the largest and/or richest sources of CO, in industry are identified and the technical and economic feasibility of recovering CO, from these sources is assessed. We focus our attention on industries in the Netherlands. This paper is based on a more extended study by our department [I]. Specifications were set for the recovered CO, so that different CO, recovery options can be compared [2]. The product CO, should be delivered at a pressure of 110 bar, a temperature of 10°C and a water content of less than 10 ppm. Carbon dioxide with these specifications is regarded to be suitable for pipeline transport and subsequent underground storage. Costs are reported in US Dollars of 1990 (US$). Depreciation is calculated on the basis of annuity, with a depreciation time of 25 years and a real interest rate of 5%. The price of electricity is taken to be 0.05 US$/kWh. We use a steam price of 2.5 US$/GJ for low pressure steam (3.5 bar saturated). Energy used for the recovery of carbon dioxide leads to new carbon dioxide emissions, direct and indirect. To get a clear idea of the volume of CO, emissions avoided, we assigned carbon dioxide emission factors to the electricity and steam consumption. For electricity we use a carbon dioxide emission factor of 177 kg-CO,/GJ,; this figure is based on the fuel input in the Dutch public electricity production in 1988 [3]. For steam the carbon dioxide emission factor is taken as 62 kg-C02/GJ. This figure is based on fueling with natural gas with a thermal boiler efficiency of 90% (LHV). 2. CO, EMISSIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS The sources in industry from which CO, (or other carbon compounds) can be recovered are flue and fuel gases and feedstock gas streams. The carbon in these gases may be derived from fossil fuels, but in industry also carbonaceous gases are found that are not derived from fossil fuels (e.g. in the cement industry). In order to evaluate the possible ways for recovering CO,, all the CO, sources have to be mapped accurately. The actual CO, emission in the Netherlands is calculated to be 158 Mtonne CO, (1988, excluding inter- national bunkers and import) [4]. Of this amount 50 Mtonne CO, was emitted by the manufacturing industry (excluding feedstock use of fuel). To obtain insight in the plants with the largest CO, emissions, we looked at the lowest level of aggregation, namely per plant. Estimates of the combined combustion and process CO, emissions resulted in a list of the top 20 Dutch C02-producing industrial plants. These 20 plants are grouped per industrial sector in figure 1. 827