Simulation and Economic Analysis of Indirect Coal-to-Liquid Technology Coupling Carbon Capture and Storage

Because the liquid fuel market in China is growing rapidly compared to the capacity for liquid fuel production, interest of coal-to-liquid technology is growing for producing liquid fuel. Several processes have not yet been industrialized. Among these, the Fischer–Tropsch (FT) process for fuel production from coal was chosen for simulation and analysis. We consider carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology because of the importance of CO₂ emissions in climate change. Systems with and without CCS coupling were simulated using Aspen Plus software. We used the simulation results to estimate costs, investment per unit of product, net present value, internal rate of return, and the static investment recovery period as economic indicators. The economic benefits of CCS technology were estimated in terms of CO₂ emission reductions cost and the cost for CO₂ capture. We also performed a price sensitivity analysis. The results reveal that CCS coupling to indirect coal liquefaction is economically feasible. With the pressure to limit CO₂ emissions, CCS coupling systems for FT fuel production are expected to be competitive