Techno-economic analysis of a 15 MW corn-rape oxy-combustion power plant

Abstract Oxy-combustion is a promising technology to enable the capture of CO 2 from power plants based on diverse raw material. This paper describes and compares the results of technical and economic viability studies of a 15 MW power plant based on a corn-rape blend oxy-combustion, a bituminous coal-combustion and a bituminous coal oxy-combustion located in the north of Spain. Technical simulations were implemented in Aspen Plus© software. The economic viability studies were based on the typical economic indicators such as net present value, rate of return, specific total plant investment, cost of electricity, cost of CO 2 avoided and energy consumption for CO 2 avoided. A sensitivity analysis was carried out in order to identify the most important factors affecting the investment risks. The use of a cryogenic air separation unit was associated with a reduction in oxy-combustion plant viability. While coal-combustion process reported an enough profitability, a supplementary public grant of 63 €/MWh and 57 €/MWh were required in coal oxy-combustion process and biomass oxy-combustion process respectively to obtain a positive profitability. A stability of raw material and electricity markets was found to be necessary to improve a risk reduction for the potential investment.