Coal-fired power plants in the United States: examination of the costs of retrofitting with CO₂ capture technology, revision 3

Topic(s): Carbon capture use and storage (CCUS), CO₂ capture

Retrofitting existing coal-fired power plants to capture CO₂ is an important GHG mitigation option for the United States. Coal power plants are large point sources and account for roughly 37% of total U.S. CO₂ emissions. Also, retrofitting utilizes the base power plant and related infrastructure and so the cost and level of disruption could be less than other greenhouse gas mitigation options. NETL studied the 738 coal-fired generating units currently operating in the United States and estimated how much the capital cost and parasitic load for CO₂ retrofit would vary from unit to unit. Site-specific characteristics such as base plant efficiency, whether or not the unit has a sulfur scrubber, the efficiency of the sulfur scrubber, how much water is available for the unit to use, and how much space is available for the CO₂ capture and compression equipment were factored in to an estimate of CO₂ capture cost at each generating unit.

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