(514aa) Minimum Cost Carbon Reduction Pathways for Different Geographic Regions

The rising concerns about the issue of climate change have led to the emergence of global efforts to mitigate the rising concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Different pathways for carbon reduction exist, including enhancing the efficiency of existing processes, implementing renewable energy options, or applying carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) as an end of pipe solution. However, CCUS and renewable energy technologies in particular have broad ranges of economic performance depending on technology choices and geographic regions so that their economic feasibility is strongly location dependent. Given the variety of available renewable energy, and carbon utilization and storage options, it is important to establish an analytical approach that allows to identify the minimum cost carbon reduction strategies for a given situation. Since different geographic regions have varying access to renewable energy resources and carbon utilization and storage options, they will exhibit different costs for carbon reduction affecting the portfolio selection for CCUS and renewable energy implementation. This work presents a case study into optimal pathways for CO₂ emissions reduction using portfolios of CCUS and renewable energy technologies for three different countries: Norway, Qatar, and Japan. Emerging process integration techniques are implemented to develop carbon abatement cost profiles for the three countries and assess the different options available and the associated carbon fixation costs. The findings will allow a better understanding of the opportunities of carbon reduction taking into account the variation in the options and costs among regions.