Estimating the environmental implications of implementing carbon capture and storage in Indian coal power plants

Ever increasing carbon dioxide emissions and the associated climate impacts are major concerns for human civilization today. Fossil-fuel-fired power plants are the leading emitters of CO₂. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) from coal power-plants is one of the most promising technologies for mitigating CO₂ emissions from energy sector. However, CCS technology is highly resource intensive and not yet commercially viable. Thus, it is essential that the impacts of this technology are estimated beforehand. This paper attempts to understand the implications of implementing CCS in Indian coal power plants on the environmental resources. The cases of a new 500 MW sub-critical and a 660 MW super-critical plant, with and without CCS using a variety of capture technologies, have been simulated. The relevant parameters in terms of which the environmental impact shall be gauged are the additional requirement of resources (such as coal, water, chemical agents etc.) and emissions of CO₂, SO₂, NO_x, HC1 and particulate matter. The influence of different design and operating parameters such as coal properties, boiler efficiency, CO₂ capture levels and CO₂ product pressure, has also been studied.