Life Cycle Assessment of the natural gas supply chain and power generation options with CO 2 capture and storage: Assessment of Qatar natural gas production, LNG transport and power generation in the UK

Sustainable Technologies, Systems & Policies: Vol. CCS Workshop, 9, DOI: 10.5339/stsp.2012.ccs.11
Carbon Capture and Storage Workshop, Texas A&M University in Qatar, 2-3 April 2012
Life Cycle Assessment of the natural gas supply chain and power generation options with CO 2  capture and storage: Assessment of Qatar natural gas production, LNG transport and power generation in the UK
Anna Korre , Zhenggang Nie , Sevket Durucan
a.korre@imperial.ac.uk
MERG, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, SW7 2BP, UK
Abstract
Fossil fuel-based power generation technologies with and without CO 2  capture offer a number of alternatives, which involve different fuel production and supply, power generation and capture routes with varied energy consumption rates and subsequent environmental impacts. The holistic perspective offered by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can help decision makers to quantify the trade-offs inherent in any change to the fuel supply and power production systems and ensure that a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions does not result in increases in other environmental impacts. Beside energy and non-energy related GHG releases, LCA also tracks various other environmental emissions, such as solid wastes, toxic substances and common air pollutants, as well as the consumption of resources, such as water, minerals and land use. In this respect, the dynamic LCA model developed at Imperial College incorporates fossil fuel production, transportation, power generation, CO 2  capture, CO 2  conditioning, pipeline transportation and CO 2  injection and storage, and quantifies the environmental impacts at the highest level of detail, allowing for the assessment of technical and geographical differences between the alternative technologies considered. The life cycle inventory (LCI) databases that were developed, model the inputs and outputs of the processes at component or unit process level, rather than “gate-to-gate” level, and therefore generate reliable LCI data in a consistent and transparent manner, with a clearly arranged and flexible structure for long-term strategic energy system planning and decision-making.
The presentation discussed the principles of the LCA models developed and the newly extended models for the natural gas-fired power generation, with alternative CO 2  capture systems. Additionally, the natural gas supply chain LCA models, including offshore platform gas production, gas pipeline transportation, gas processing, liquefied natural gas (LNG) processes, LNG shipping and LNG receiving terminal developed are used to estimate the life cycle GHG emissions for an idealised case study of natural gas production in Qatar, LNG transportation to a UK natural gas terminal and use in a power plant. The scenario considers a conventional and three alternative CO 2  capture systems, transport and injection of the CO 2  offshore in the Irish Sea.
Introduction
The dynamic LCA model developed at Imperial College incorporates fossil fuel production, transportation, power generation, CO 2  capture, CO 2  conditioning, pipeline transportation and CO 2  injection and storage, and quantifies the environmental impacts at the highest level of detail. This allows for the assessment of technical and geographical differences between the alternative power generation, CO 2  capture, transport and storage technologies considered. Earlier publications by the authors [4,6] present the post-combustion life cycle model developed and a comparative assessment between the post-combustion and oxy-fuel capture options modelled for coal fired plants. This paper presents the principles of the LCA models developed and the newly extended models for the natural gas-fired power generation with alternative CO 2  capture system. Additionally, the natural gas supply chain LCA models, including offshore platform gas production, gas pipeline transportation, gas processing, liquefied natural gas (LNG) processes, LNG shipping and LNG receiving terminal developed are used to estimate the life cycle GHG emissions for an idealised case study of natural gas production in Qatar, LNG transportation to a UK natural gas terminal and use in a power plant. The scenario considers a conventional and three alternative CO 2  capture systems, transport and injection of the CO 2  off-shore in the Irish Sea.
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