Economic and Environmental Optimization of a CCUS Supply Chain in Germany

Abstract

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage supply chain is recently acknowledged as a crucial method to limit global warming. There is a notable desire to optimize supply chains simultaneously with respect to economic and environmental factors, and the development of a mathematical model integrating the life cycle assessment into source-sink matching is missing in the existing literature. The present work means to fill this gap by using a bi-objective mixed-integer linear programming problem. The case study for this research focuses on a real-life scenario in Germany where carbon dioxide is captured from flue gas and transported to be stored or/and used. The total profit and life cycle GHG reduction are maximized. The results show that the profit per unit of sequestered CO2 decreases from 2014 to −€332 as the rate of life cycle GHG reduction increases from −873 to 52 MtCO2eq/year. The findings from the model can provide valuable knowledge that can be utilized in various countries at different levels, such as at regional, state, and national levels. This knowledge can also assist decision-makers in selecting more sustainable solutions when designing carbon capture, utilization, and storage systems.