Life Cycle Assessment of Waste Coal and Biomass Co-Fired Power Plant With Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies

One of the global concerns that have received a lot of attention recently is climate change. Coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases constitute the majority of the fuel used to generate utility-scale electricity in the US. Global warming is a result of widespread emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, from the combustion of fossil fuels. However, due to their lower carbon footprint, biomass-based heat and power generation are expanding quickly, aiding in the achievement of the target of zero carbon emissions. In this study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of a 100 MW subcritical waste coal and biomass co-fired power plant with and without carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies has been assessed considering raw material extraction, transportation, power generation, and associated inputs and outputs. The findings demonstrate that increasing the biomass ratio reduced global warming potential (GWP), and incorporating CCS further decreased the GWP. However, higher biomass ratios and CCS integration led to increased eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, acidification, and other impact potentials.