PNNL

Abstract

In this study, we use an integrated assessment model – GCAM, whose results were included in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report – to explore the ways in which CCS could be used in a future carbon-constrained world. We focus on possible roles for CCS applications across different sectors – electricity, liquid fuels (predominantly, biofuels for transportation), and industry – and coupled to different primary fuels (oil, gas, coal, and biomass). To generate scenarios, we assume an increasing economy-wide global price on GHG emissions high enough to match several prescribed radiative forcing targets, approximating a least-cost mitigation pathway for a given target. Results show that the deployment of CCS technologies is not limited to fossil fuels, nor to power plants. There is potential for significant long-term climate change mitigation from application of CCS in the use of biomass to produce both electricity and liquid fuels. Moreover, in many climate change mitigation scenarios examined with GCAM, most biofuels and bio-electricity over the 21st century use CCS to reduce their emissions. These results can be explained in terms of the relative cost competition between technologies in GCAM.