Energy Technologies Institute: Thermal Power with CCUS

The ETI appointed Kent to develop a generic business case for developing a gas fired power plant fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The business case developed an outline scheme and a ‘template’ power plant design (Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) with post combustion capture), identified potential sites in key UK industrial hubs and built a credible
cost base for such a scheme, benchmarked as far as possible against actual project data and as-built plant.

Kent has a long history of supporting CO2 projects. We delivered the first commercial scale CCS with Power at Boundary Dam in Canada, won the contract for the Shell Peterhead CCS (before the commercialisation funding was withdrawn by the UK Government), and has designed and installed CO2 capture from Natural Gas at Rhourde Nouss in Algeria.

The ETI’s energy system modelling work has shown that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the most cost effective levers to help the UK meet its 2050 CO2 reduction targets: without CCS the energy system cost in 2050 could be £30bn per annum higher.

The UK Government retains the belief that CCS could play a crucial role in the future energy system, and confirmed its commitment to CCS in the Clean Growth Strategy published in October 2017. With planned retirements of the UK’s existing fossil fuel and nuclear fleet, there will be a growing need for new, dispatchable power through the 2020s, with low CO2 intensity to meet tightening carbon budgets.

The ETI has identified a need to develop a clear vision of what a cost-effective gas power with CCS scheme might look like and provide a clear and credible performance and cost information for such a scheme. To achieve this, the project involved developing an outline scheme and ‘template’ power plant design (Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) with post combustion capture) and identifying how this might be built and operated at selected sites around the UK.

We provided a high level technical specification and conceptual design for a full CCS chain including the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Power Generation Plant, Post Combustion Amine Based Carbon Capture, CO2 Compression and dehydration, pipelines, subsea pipelines, and offshore platforms. The conceptual design resulted in a conceptual plot plan for the onshore facilities which was used to identify suitable sites in 5 regions of the UK. We developed capital cost and operational cost models for a range of sizes of plant, within the 5 regions, using cost information developed from our EPC Projects.

To achieve a lower risk, the plant is designed to use CCGT power generation with post combustion engineered amine solvent CO2 capture technology and fixed platform offshore facilities. We were supported by AECOM who identified potential site locations for such a plant and the University of Sheffield who have supported the project with technical and policy expertise.

The Generic Business Case (GBC) project reviewed the feasibility and costs of locating a power station with CCS at a range of sizes (1 x 600 MW to 5 x 600 MW) in 5 separate regions in the UK