Techno-economic analysis of a 15Â MW corn-rape oxy-combustion power plant

Oxy-combustion is a promising technology to enable the capture of CO2 from power plants based on diverse raw material. This paper describes and compares the results of technical and economic viability studies of a 15 MW power plant based on a corn-rape blend oxy-combustion, a bituminous coal-combustion and a bituminous coal oxy-combustion located in the north of Spain. Technical simulations were implemented in Aspen Plus© software. The economic viability studies were based on the typical economic indicators such as net present value, rate of return, specific total plant investment, cost of electricity, cost of CO2 avoided and energy consumption for CO2 avoided. A sensitivity analysis was carried out in order to identify the most important factors affecting the investment risks. The use of a cryogenic air separation unit was associated with a reduction in oxy-combustion plant viability. While coal-combustion process reported an enough profitability, a supplementary public grant of 63 €/MWh and 57 €/MWh were required in coal oxy-combustion process and biomass oxy-combustion process respectively to obtain a positive profitability. A stability of raw material and electricity markets was found to be necessary to improve a risk reduction for the potential investment.