PNNL

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) could be a cost-competitive climate change mitigation option depending on technology cost and performance evolution over this century. However, CCS deployment is currently very limited and the future costs of CCS technologies are uncertain, with current cost projections higher than those from the last decade. In this paper, we use the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to explore the ways in which CCS could be used in a future carbon-constrained energy system, focusing on its possible roles across different sectors (electricity, liquid fuels, and industry), and coupled to different primary fuels (biomass, natural gas, coal, and oil). We find that, for a set of assumptions about how future CCS and biofuel technology costs evolve, CCS is largely used for both electricity generation from fossil fuels and biomass, and for liquid biofuels production (for use primarily in transportation). These results challenge the conventional wisdom that CCS will primarily be coupled with power plants and suggests a need for greater focus on the role of CCS across sectors and fuels in scenarios of 21st century energy system transformation.