The United States needs to rapidly reduce CO2 emissions to achieve climate goals. Installing carbon capture at power and industrial facilities, when paired with geologic storage, is one way to reduce emissions. The selection and design of carbon capture equipment is complicated because each facility has unique characteristics that need to be considered. For example, some facilities have a variety of units that may consume different types of fuels and produce varying amounts of CO2. Therefore, it is imperative to first screen facilities to determine which have units that are suitable for capture, and to estimate the cost of implementation.
We have developed CO2NCORD, the CO₂ National Capture Opportunities and Readiness Database, a tool to identify facilities feasible for carbon capture retrofits and estimate the associated costs. CO2NCORD combines 1) detailed emitter data from the EPA, EIA, and RFA, 2) capture cost estimates from literature, 3) NETL cost models and 4) experience-based classification to make this assessment.
This study will provide an overview of the number of facilities that are expected to have prime capture opportunities. Not all emitted CO2 is expected to be captured because some facilities do not emit enough to make capture economic or are eligible for 45Q tax credits. Our analysis shows that there are many opportunities for carbon capture in the United States.
The novelty of this work is enhancing publicly available emitter data into information that can support screening facilities for carbon capture. One of the ways it does this is by identifying types of units and processes that can support capture equipment, as opposed to just overall CO2 emissions at a facility. It also enables summarizing the amount of CO2 emissions that may be expected to be economical for capture at state and national scales.