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4.3 Environmental performance

Main objectives

   
This WP aims to assess the environmental performance of CCS technologies over the complete life cycle. The WP will also provide a confidential platform to organise and exchange location and/or technology specific data on environmental performance to support this assessment as well as provide input that would be required to carry out a strategic environmental impact assessment (SEA) for CCS in the Netherlands.

Background

Life cycle inventory, analysis, and valuation of the environmental performance of CCS chains is important input for implementation, development and policy evaluation of the technology in order to avoid damage transfer to other industries or countries. However, state-of-the-art environmental performance assessments of CCS chains to date are not satisfactory. They have been executed for only a few solvents, lack many toxic emissions and waste and are surrounded by large uncertainties due to a lack of measurements.
Actual measurements of emissions at the pilot plants are of vital importance for a reliable assessment of the environmental performance of the CCS chain in the Dutch situation.

Data and preliminary environmental performance assessment

In discussion with relevant CATO-2 participants, a number of cases will be selected for environmental performance assessment on the basis of existing knowledge and relevance, i.e. the most relevant CCS (sub) technologies and/or CCS (sub) technologies applied at the sites. Literature and monitoring data will be collected for all stages of the life cycle of CCS, particularly for the selected cases.

A preliminary life cycle assessment will be carried out to rank environmental impacts for the selected CCS chains. The following environmental impacts will be assessed for their relevance in a life cycle assessment

  • NOx, PM, SO2 emissions from power plants with CCS
  • NH3 and NMVOC emissions from solvents during operation
  • Quantity and quality (toxicity) of solvent waste
  • (Toxic) emissions to water

Economic valuation of environmental impacts

This work will include an inventory and selection of an appropriate methodology for the economic valuation to valuate external environmental effects in external costs. The methodology will be applied to each of the cases selected in Task 5.3.1, which allows to some extent for comparison of (technologies with) different types of environmental effects.

 

This will result in prioritisation of environmental impacts which is important to determine the focus of environmental monitoring in the next task. This task will be carried in close connection with the work in WP2.2 (techno-economic chain analysis).  

 

Development of an Environmental Monitoring Plan

The knowledge gaps identified and the results of the preliminary assessment in Task 5.3.1 will help to guide further data collection and measurements for the case studies, including (indirect) emissions.

 

In this task an Environmental Monitoring plan will be developed that describes in detail what measurements will be conducted at which site in order to produce environmental performance data in a comparable, efficient and effective way. The monitoring plan will be carried out by the site operators, and the results will feed into the final environmental performance assessment (Task 5.3.5).

 

Data will be stored and exchanged with the help of an Environmental Monitoring & Exchange Database for CCS environmental performance data. A confidential Environmental Monitoring & Exchange Platform will be established to facilitate access to confidential environmental data for use in this WP. Procedures will have to be agreed to guarantee confidentiality of the data.

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