Life cycle assessment of a carbon capture utilization and storage supply chain in Italy and Germany: comparison between carbon dioxide storage and utilization systems

The main purpose of this work is to verify that the CCUS supply chains at large scale that were developed in previous studies for Italy and Germany effectively reduce carbon emissions. The methodology of life cycle analysis was applied. Results showed that the annual global warming potential (GWP) for these supply chains in Italy and Germany are respectively 9.62 × 1010 kgCO2-eq and 1.94 × 1011 kgCO2-eq which would help enable these countries to achieve the carbon dioxide reduction target fixed by European environmental policies. Overall emissions in Italy and Germany are 249 Mtonne/year and 640 Mtonne/year, respectively. Sensitivity analysis results show that, for the supply chain in Germany, the GWP increases when, for a fixed amount of emissions captured, more carbon dioxide is sent to utilization: storage is then important to achieve the environmental target. Other impact categories decrease, increase or remain constant. On the other hand, for the supply chain in Italy, results showed that a lower environmental impact can be obtained by increasing the carbon utilization rate for methane production via a power to gas system. If this is implemented then this utilization system would a better solution from an environmentally point of view than the storage option with other utilization processes.