Life cycle, PESTLE and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis of CCS process alternatives

CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas (GHG) due to its large quantity of anthropogenic emission. In this work the amine based carbon capture process and the CO2 storage, called Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is analysed from different viewpoints. PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) analysis of the CCS alternatives (Fossil based, Improved process, Renewable based) is investigated in detail and the alternatives are also compared with the uncontrolled CO2 release using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods. Life cycle inventory data is set up and analysed with four life cycle impact assessment methods. In order to conclude the comparison of CCS and the uncontrolled release of CO2 a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is also applied with Multi Attribute Value Theory (MAVT) method. Our results show that applying process improvement and renewable energy sources (e.g., biogas) for absorbent regeneration result in a CCS technology of much smaller environmental and social impacts, and therefore the CCS technology becomes more favorable than the uncontrolled release.