Life cycle assessment performed on a CCS model case in Japan and evaluation of improvement facilitated by heat integration

Abstract Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology for reducing the amount of CO 2 to be emitted into the air, by storing the CO 2 . However, a CCS project itself emits some CO 2 . Therefore, to estimate CCS’s net CO 2 reduction effect, it is effective to apply life cycle assessment (LCA) to CCS projects. In this paper, we assumed a number of CCS project models to be feasible in Japan, and estimated the amount of CO 2 emissions to store one ton of CO 2 by applying LCA to the CCS projects. As a result, depending on the model case, 50% or more of the CO 2 amount to be stored was emitted. The study also revealed that approximately 80% of the CO 2 emissions at CCS-applied facilities derived from the energy consumed to re-heat the liquid absorbent that absorbed CO 2 . The study also indicated that a substantial amount of CO 2 emissions can be reduced if heat integration is conducted between the production equipment and the CCS equipment for energy utilization, such as bleeding CO 2 from a power station and other production equipment.