Environmental Gains and Impacts of a CCS Technology – Case Study of Post-combustion CO2 Separation by Ammonia Absorption

Considering the impacts of human activities on the environment, emissions of greenhouse gases are one of the major concerns. The CCS technologies are seen as an option that can help to decrease the emissions of CO2 and reduce potential effects that a heightened CO2 concentration might have. The technical solution of capture, transport and storage of the CO2 originating in large emission point sources (power plants, industry) is depending on local conditions and can vary significantly. The ammonia scrubbing was chosen for CO2 separation from flue gas of lignite coal power plant (typical conditions for the Czech Republic) in the national project MPO FR-TI1/379. Environmental gains and impacts of the power plant and the optimized variant of the capture technology based on ammonia scrubbing were assessed on the basis of material and energy flow balance. The potential environmental impacts of the power plant with and without CO2 capture were compared using LCA methodology.