Technological, economic, and emission analysis of the oxy-combustion process

The high concentration of polluting emissions, and in particular of CO2 in the atmosphere, determines the greenhouse effect, therefore it is necessary to reduce its quantity as much as possible. For this reason, a strong commitment is underway to obtain effective technological improvements and to study adequate operational measures. One measure among these may be the oxy-combustion process. Many researchers have studied this process, its characteristics, and operating conditions but what is not known in the literature is the economic feasibility of a plant employing this technology and its environmental impact. There are few plants powered by oxy-combustion and many of these are still pilot plants, for this reason using Retscreen it was possible to evaluate and optimize the technical and financial feasibility of an oxy-fuel cogeneration plant for a university campus in such a way as to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness and lower environmental impact that an oxy-fuel system causes compared to a traditional system. It was evaluated the return on investment for the cogeneration plant as the economic parameters varied: in almost all cases analyzed the investment turned out to be convenient and the minimum calculated payback time was 2.5 years. With this software, it was also possible to determine the environmental impact of this technology which corresponds to a reduction of approximately 3700 tons/year of carbon dioxide compared to a traditional type of system. This work will encourage the investors and corporate sector to embrace this alternative technology for decreasing polluting emissions from the process.