Carbon capture from combined heat and power plants – Impact on the supply and cost of electricity and district heating in cities

The capture and storage of biogenic CO₂ emissions from large point sources, such as biomass-combusting combined heat and power (CHP) plants, can contribute to climate change mitigation and provide carbon-negative electricity while supplying district heating in urban areas. This work investigates the impact of retrofitting CO₂ capture processes to CHP plants in a city energy system context. An energy system optimization model is applied to a case study of the city Västerås, Sweden, with scenarios involving two existing CHP plants in the city, retrofitted with either a heat-driven (MEA) or an electricity-driven (HPC) carbon capture process. The results show that the CHP plants might be retrofitted with either option without significantly impacting the district heating system operation or the marginal costs of electricity and district heating in the city. The MEA process mainly causes a reduction in district heating output (up to 30% decrease on an annual basis), which can be offset by heat recovery from the capture unit. The electrified HPC process does not impact the CHP plant steam cycle but implies increased import of electricity to the city (up to 44% increase annually) compared to a reference scenario.