Techno-economic analysis of a 300 MWe coal-fired power plant retrofitted with post-combustion CO2 capture

To evaluate the integrated system which post-combustion capture was combined with a typical Chinese coal-fired power plant and investigate the effect of coal ranks on techno-economic analysis of the retrofitted power plant, the retrofitted power plant with post-combustion CO2 capture (MEA) process and the economic performance were analysed using an Aspen Plus software and a cash flow model in this study (Aspen Technology Inc, 2001). The results indicated that the net power outputs of the retrofitted power plant dropped from 302.62 to 249.45 MWe for lignite, 254.97 MWe for bituminous coal and 249.90 MWe for anthracite, respectively. For three cases, the net efficiencies decreased about 7%. The cash flow model was also used for economic analysis. The annual cost of the total retrofitted power plant (CT) increased from 80.6 M$ /year to 87.5 M$ /year for lignite, 90.8 M$ /year for bituminous coal and 88.8 M$ /year for anthracite, respectively. The cost of power generation (CCOE) increased to 48.7 $ /MWh for lignite, 50.5 $ /MWh for bituminous coal and 48.4 $ /MWh for anthracite, respectively. There were significant effects of different coal ranks on the techno-economic performance. The costs of CO2 avoided (CAVOID) for lignite, bituminous coal and anthracite were estimated to be 15.0 $ /tonne, 19.6 $ /tonne and 15.2 $ /tonne, respectively. (C) 2011 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.