How much does it cost to capture carbon dioxide from a coal or natural gas fired power plant and store it underground?
It depends. 98% percent of all current power plants burn the fuel in air and exhaust a flue gas that is low pressure and contains carbon dioxide in dilute concentrations (3-12 volume %). Retro-fitting carbon dioxide capture to this facilities using existing technology is expensive. For pulverized coal plant the cost of carbon dioxide capture, transport, and storage in an underground formation would add at least 70-100% to the cost of electricity. Emerging R&D technologies are attempting to lower the cost to less than a 20% increase in the cost of electricity compared to a non-capture counterpart.
