Life cycle assessment of carbon capture and storage in power generation and industry in Europe

• Comprehensive LCA of power generation from coal, natural gas and wood with CCS.
• Prospective assessment up to 2050.
• First-of-its-kind LCA of the implementation of CCS at cement production plants.
• CCS can contribute to a low- or negative-carbon power and industry production.
• Trade-offs related to CCS indicate benefits of system integration.

To prevent serious negative effects of climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions are required on global level and at large scale. One option is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) which aims to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power generation and industry and store it permanently in geologic structures. For a comprehensive comparative assessment of the environmental performance of CCS technologies life cycle assessment (LCA) is required. This study provides a systematic comparison of LCA-based environmental performances of fossil and wood power plants as well as cement production in Europe for 2025 and 2050 with and without CCS. The implementation of CCS leads to life cycle GHG emission reductions of 68–92% for fossil power generation and 39–78% for cement production whilst to negative ones for wood power generation. There are trade-offs with respect to environmental and human health impacts due to direct (e.g. air emissions) and indirect (e.g. coal mining) impacts of the increase in fuel use and additional processes and materials necessary for CCS. Cement plants are suitable point sources for the implementation of CCS. Here the energy supply for the CO2 capture and compression is decisive for the environmental impacts, what indicates benefits of system integration.