The Economics of Power Sector Decarbonization: A Case Study for Kuwait

Proceedings of The 3rd World Conference on Climate Change and Global Warming

Year: 2023

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/3rd.ccgconf.2023.03.001

[PDF]

The Economics of Power Sector Decarbonization: A Case Study for Kuwait

Naser Hussain and Mohammad Jassam

ABSTRACT: 

In this research activity fuel energies were used to evaluate CO₂ emissions resulting from the power stations in Kuwait. Also, the calculated CO₂ emitted was used to perform economic valuation for using amine-based carbon capture technology to reduce the CO₂ emissions from the power stations. Linear regression model was used to predict CO₂ emissions using fuels energies used in the power stations. The dependent variable is total CO₂ emissions from the power stations while the independent variables are the fuels energies of the fuels used to generate electricity. Regression analysis results showed that the model has strong goodness of fit and regression coefficients have high significance level. The regression model indicated that Heavy fuel oil has the highest effect on the total CO₂ emitted. If the heavy fuel oil consumption increases with 1 BBTU this will lead to an increase in the total CO₂ emission of 0.0817 kton. The power stations with high dependence on Heavy fuel oil had higher emissions than other power stations. On the other hand, when Natural gas consumption increases with 1 BBTU this will increase the total CO₂ emissions with 0.0592 kton. Natural gas is the best fossil fuel to reduce emissions since it has less CO₂ emissions at any level of fuel energy compared to other fossil fuels. It was found that Alzour South, Sabiya, and Doha West power stations have the highest CO₂ emissions in the power sector. The preliminary economic valuation to use post combustion carbon capture technology was performed for the three power stations considering two modes of transportation which are pipelines and trucks. The results indicated that the total costs of CO₂ avoided for Alzour South are approximately USD 1.23 billion, and USD 1.58 billion for pipelines and trucks transport respectively while for Doha West are USD 738.5 million, and USD 945.9 million for pipelines and trucks transport respectively.

keywords: Fossil Fuel, Carbon Capture, Emissions, Post Combustion, Linear Regression