title: Water impacts of CO2 emission performance standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants.
abstract: We employ an integrated systems modeling tool to assess the water impacts of the new source performance standards recently proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for limiting CO2 emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. The implementation of amine-based carbon capture and storage (CCS) for 40% CO2 capture to meet the current proposal will increase plant water use by roughly 30% in supercritical pulverized coal-fired power plants. The specific amount of added water use varies with power plant and CCS designs. More stringent emission standards than the current proposal would require CO2 emission reductions for natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) plants via CCS, which would also increase plant water use. When examined over a range of possible future emission standards from 1100 to 300 lb CO2/MWh gross, new baseload NGCC plants consume roughly 60-70% less water than coal-fired plants. A series of adaptation approaches to secure low-carbon energy production and improve the electric power industry's water management in the face of future policy constraints are discussed both quantitatively and qualitatively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Shuchi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Talati
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.forename: M Granger
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Morgan
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005579:Fossil Fuels / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011210:Power Plants / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D011336:Probability; D012015:Reference Standards; D035501:Uncertainty; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D005579:Fossil Fuels; D014867:Water; D002245:Carbon Dioxide