Cost curve of large-scale deployment of CO2-enhanced water recovery technology in modern coal chemical industries in China

Abstract China has emerged as a world leader in the coal chemical industry, which requires large amount of water and results in considerable CO 2 emissions. This situation has led to the challenge of the CO 2 -Water nexus for China and particularly for the sustainable development of its coal chemical industry. CO 2 -enhanced water recovery (CO 2 -EWR) technology can provide large-scale CO 2 mitigation and additional water supply in an integrated manner, especially in arid areas. Meanwhile, CO 2 streams from industrial separation processes in the coal chemical industries are amenable to separation and can dramatically simplify or even dispense with the capture process. This study presents the first systematic assessment of a cost curve for onshore CO 2 -EWR potential using CO 2 streams from industrial separation processes by an evaluation framework encompassing CO 2 emission inventory, site suitability evaluation, and source–sink matching with techno-economic models. Preliminary results focused on the full capacity of several coal chemical processes as of 2015 suggest that CO 2 -EWR technology can mitigate 269 million tons of CO 2 from industrial separation processes at relatively low cost ranging from 12 to 30 USD/t CO 2 in China. Furthermore, 404 million tons of underground water could be produced for further desalination and utilization. When additional capacity under development could become fully operational, the emissions of 878 million tons of CO 2 could be mitigated and provide 1318 million tons of vital water resources. Therefore, CO 2 -EWR technology can be essential to clean and sustainable development of the coal chemical industry and may provide low-cost opportunities to accelerate the deployment of large-scale CCUS projects in China.