Optimal CCUS Supply Chain toward Carbon Neutrality: Novel Framework for Thermal Power, Iron-Steel, and Cement Sectors

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology plays a crucial role in the pursuit of carbon neutrality. To reduce the cost of carbon neutrality, it is necessary to optimally design the supply chain of CCUS, which leads to mega scale problems for vast countries such as China. In this paper, a novel three-module framework including source-sink matching, meshing, and pipeline transportation network allocating, which has the advantage of plant-level decision and trunk transportation while keeping the size of the model solvable, is proposed. In addition, a database including major CO2 emission sources in thermal power, cement, and iron-steel sectors as well as major CO2 storage sinks in China is set up. By comparison of scenarios with and without offshore storage, offshore storage is found to be superior in those southern coastal provinces. With a transportation distance not exceeding 250 km, around 4.2 Gt of CO2 can be captured and stored. Simultaneously, establishing sensible CCUS deployment objectives is crucial. As the planned deployment capacity rises from 601.8 to 1203.5 Mt/year, the unit net supply chain cost will elevate from 28.5 $/tonCO2 to 36.0 $/ton, marking a 26% increase. Moreover, the evolution of CCUS deployment toward achieving carbon neutrality between 2025 and 2050 is analyzed. Notably, early stage deployment is suitable for provinces in northern China, while other provinces are anticipated to engage in subsequent phases. The comparative study indicates that CCUS is more economically viable than introducing green power and green hydrogen in the thermal power, iron-steel, and cement sectors for emission reduction.