Life Cycle Analysis of a CO2 Project in Trinidad & Tobago

Abstract

Climate change is one of the major issues affecting the world currently based on our current and excessive fossil fuel-based energy usage that is emitting carbon into the atmosphere. In order help this situation, the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere needs to be looked into via the implementation of carbon capture technologies. This paper aims to determine the net CO₂ emissions resulting from implementing a Direct Air Capture (DAC) system in tandem with a renewable energy project, offsetting emissions being generated during power generation in Trinidad and Tobago using a gate to grave life cycle assessment (LCA). A comparison between the storage capacities of different reservoir types, a saline aquifer and depleted hydrocarbon reservoir, was accomplished by keeping all reservoir parameters constant with the exception of the fluid models in each. It was determined that a solid sorbent DAC would be most suitable for this project, with the LCA showing that net CO₂ emissions were -799 kgCO₂e/ ton of CO₂ stored. From the comparison of the different reservoir types, it was determined that saline aquifers have greater CO₂ storage potential than depleted hydrocarbon fields, with almost double the capacity being seen for this case. An economic analysis was lastly performed, utilizing carbon credits as a revenue source, to determine the project’s financial feasibility where it was determined that the minimum price at which credits could be sold to achieve breakeven is $347USD/ton. Conclusively, this study demonstrated that a project of this calibre is both environmentally and economically beneficial in assisting with carbon mitigation strategies and evidently global climate change, indicated that saline aquifers have great potential for storing captured CO₂, and is along the developmental pathway for Trinidad and Tobago’s Vision 2030.