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Zhang C, Zhai H, Cao L, Li X, Cheng F, Peng L, Tong K, Meng J, Yang L, Wang X. Understanding the complexity of existing fossil fuel power plant decarbonization. iScience 2022; 25:104758. [PMID: 35942095 PMCID: PMC9356183 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Growing national decarbonization commitments require rapid and deep reductions of carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil-fuel power plants. Although retrofitting existing plants with carbon capture and storage or biomass has been discussed extensively, yet such options have failed to provide evident emission reductions at a global scale so far. Assessments of decarbonization technologies tend to focus on one specific option but omit its interactions with competing technologies and related sectors (e.g., water, food, and land use). Energy system models could mimic such inter-technological and inter-sectoral competition but often aggregate plant-level parameters without validation, as well as fleet-level inputs with large variability and uncertainty. To enhance the accuracy and reliability of top-down optimization models, bottom-up plant-level experience accumulation is of vital importance. Identifying sweet spots for plant-level pilot projects, overcoming the technical, financial, and social obstacles of early large-scale demonstration projects, incorporating equity into the transition, propagating the plant-level potential to generate fleet-level impacts represent some key complexity of existing fossil-fuel power plant decarbonization challenges that imposes the need for a serious re-evaluation of existing fossil fuel power plant abatement in energy transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuan Zhang
- Institute of Energy, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Haibo Zhai
- Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
- Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
- Corresponding author
| | - Liwei Cao
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK
| | - Xiang Li
- Institute of Energy, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Fangwei Cheng
- Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Liqun Peng
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Kangkang Tong
- China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 201308 China
| | - Jing Meng
- The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, London, WC1E 7HB, UK
- Corresponding author
| | - Lei Yang
- Institute of Energy, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Xiaonan Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
- Corresponding author
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