An energy network with polygeneration system and CCS suitable for China

An energy network with polygeneration system and CCS suitable for China was proposed in our previous work in consideration of low-cost CCS and energy providing safety. In this paper, based on life-cycle analysis, the role of the Energy Network has been investigated at the national level. Results show that with the import dependency of oil controlled in the range of 40%-60% during 2020 to 2030, up to 22% of the total capacity of coal fired supercritical power plants may be replaced by hundreds of new polygeneration plants for electricity and alternative fuels. When the oil import dependency will be kept from 40% to 60%, the Energy Network can save 20%-30% of energy and cut down 30%-40% of total costs every year compared to the present method with coal fired supercritical power plants and traditional alternative fuel plants with CO₂ capture. And the Energy Network can capture more than 0.1 billion tons of CO₂ with high concentration over 98% each year. Moreover, from the aspect of CCS, this Energy Network can realize as low as 15$/t of total CCS cost due to the quite low energy penalties of CO₂ capture in the polygeneration systems and the combination of CO₂ sources and storage sites. The new Energy Network has realized the proper combination of energy utilization and CO₂ capture and storage according to the unique state of China. It is suitable for China and may play an important role in CCS in the future.