Carbon capture and valorisation using nuclear power: is it feasible?

2020年，安大略省来自低碳来源的电力盈余为17.2太瓦时(足以为近200万户家庭供电)。在这些盈余中，7太瓦时被削减(即浪费)，其余的以低于生产总成本的价格出口。2018年，魁北克同样削减了10太瓦时的清洁电力。更好地利用加拿大清洁电力的一种方法是增加存储容量，但存储容量昂贵，并对环境造成相当大的影响。这项提议探讨的替代方案是利用过剩的清洁能源与核电站丰富的废热相结合，从空气中捕获二氧化碳(CO2)，并将其转化为乙醇、甲醇等净零碳氢化合物，最终转化为更长链的产品。这些碳氢化合物可以代替石油产品作为化学工业的原料。这种转变需要热量和电力，因此使用剩余电力是使这种碳捕获和定价(CCV)过程在经济上可行的一种有前途的方法。我们的研究团队将比较国家规模储存和CCV，并使用技术经济分析(TEA)和生命周期评估(LCA)工具探索所涉及的权衡。TEA和LCA将以迭代的方式用于评估从核电站回收热的方法以及与CCV系统的集成。同时，我们将研究和优化电化学过程，从核电产生的蒸汽和剩余电力中捕获二氧化碳来生产碳氢化合物。最后，我们将研究碳氢化合物生产过程中可能发生的材料降解机制；我们的工作结果将为我们的TEA和LCA模型提供支持，以确定最佳解决方案并提出实施这些技术的政策选择。这项跨学科研究将与加拿大核工业利益攸关方合作进行，加拿大核工业利益攸关方将提供相关的技术和市场数据。鉴于加拿大迫切需要进一步对其电网和工业进行去碳化，并实施更多的活性碳捕获战略，该项目将提供及时的分析，以指导清洁能源发展和加强加拿大的气候计划。

In 2020, Ontario had an electricity surplus of 17.2 TWh from low-carbon sources (enough to power nearly 2 million homes). Of this surplus, 7 TWh was curtailed (i.e. wasted), while the rest was exported at prices below the total cost of production. In 2018, Québec similarly curtailed 10 TWh of clean power. One way to make better use of Canada's clean electricity is to increase storage capacity, but storage capacity is expensive and has a sizeable environmental footprint. An alternative explored in this proposal is to use surplus clean energy in combination with the abundant waste heat of nuclear power plants to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and transform it into net-zero hydrocarbons like ethanol, methanol, and ultimately longer-chain products. These hydrocarbons can be used as feedstock for the chemical industry in lieu of petroleum products. This transformation requires heat and electricity, so using surplus power is a promising approach to make this carbon capture and valorisation (CCV) process economically viable. Our research team will compare national scale-storage to CCV, and explore the trade-offs involved using techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) tools. TEA and LCA will be used in an iterative fashion to assess methods for heat recovery from nuclear power plants and integration with CCV systems. In tandem, we will study and optimize electrochemical processes to produce hydrocarbons from captured CO2 from nuclear-generated steam and surplus electricity. Finally, we will study the materials degradation mechanisms that may occur during production of the hydrocarbons; results of our work will feed our TEA and LCA models to identify optimal solutions and suggest policy options to implement these technologies. This interdisciplinary research will be done in collaboration with Canadian nuclear industry stakeholders, which will provide pertinent technical and market data. Given the urgent need for Canada to further de-carbonise its electricity grid and industry, and to pursue more active carbon capture strategies, this project will provide a timely analysis to guide clean energy development and strengthen Canada's climate plan.