Cost analysis of carbon capture and storage for current gas‐fired power plants in Nigeria

This study examined the cost of adopting carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a technology when retrofitting current gas‐fired plants in Nigeria to reduce CO2 emissions. Studies show that Nigeria has abandoned or depleted oil fields; it has large coal reserves that are potential sites for CO2 storage. Five power plants with capacities of 1074, 675, 624, 480, and 191 MW were studied using the Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM) 9.5. The IECM 9.5 was calibrated using available data and some default values to model the performance and cost of retrofitting the power plants. The transport and storage system chosen was pipeline and enhance oil recovery (EOR). The results show that net plant efficiency, CO2 emission rate, quantity of CO2 captured, and CCS energy penalty are 35.78 ± 1.69%, 0.0668 ± 0.0138 kg MWh−1, 0.4478 ± 0.0274 kg MWh−1, and 0.2588 ± 0.0386%, respectively. The results also show that total capital requirement, cost of electricity, and percentage increase in cost of electricity were 1888.2 ± 336.9 $ kW−1, 114.44 ± 10.15 $ MWh−1, and 52.04 ± 3.58%, respectively. In the same manner, the cost of CO2 avoided, cost of capture, and added cost of CCS were 84.442 ± 27.73 $ MWh−1, 60.02 ± 22.51 $ tonne−1, and 28.44 ± 10.16 $ MWh−1, respectively. Further analysis shows that it would be advantageous to retrofit 1074 MW plants because this has a 46.51% increase in cost, which is lower than the cost for the other retrofitted plants. The total CO2 emission rate dropped from 0.4282 ± 0.014 to 0.0668 ± 0.0138 kg MWh−1; this drop is significant as it shows that CCS can reduce the amount of CO2 emitted from Nigeria. The study recommends that CCS is a viable CO2 emission‐reduction alternative but incentives must be put in place to cushion the high cost of electricity. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.