EAEE6212 CARBON SEQUESTRATION FINAL PROJECT

Carbon Capture and Storage

for a Waste to Energy Plant:
Accra, Ghana
Ben Waters
Ian McKinley

May 7, 2010

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for:

Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering

Columbia University
EAEE6212 Carbon Sequestration
Professors Klaus Lackner and Alissa Park
Contents
I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 2
I.1 Problem ......................................................................................................................................... 2
I.2 Proposed Solution ......................................................................................................................... 2
II. Existing and Recommended Design Processes in Accra ....................................................................... 3
II.1 Incineration WTE Plants ................................................................................................................ 3
II.2 Gasification WTE Plants ................................................................................................................ 5
II.3 Recycling and Compost Systems ................................................................................................... 6
III. Overview of Carbon Capture and Storage Techniques ......................................................................... 7
III.1 Carbon Capture ............................................................................................................................. 8
III.2 Geological Sequestration ............................................................................................................ 11
III.3 Ocean Sequestration................................................................................................................... 14
III.4 Carbon Management Policy and Carbon Resale ......................................................................... 14
IV. Carbon Capture and Storage Data Analysis ........................................................................................ 15
V. Feasibility and Future Outlook ............................................................................................................ 16
VI. Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 17
VII. References .......................................................................................................................................... 18

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I. Introduction

I.1 Problem
In the city of Accra, Ghana, there are nearly 500,000 metric tons of solid wastes produced each
year. However, only 50 percent of the solid waste produced is collected and sanitarily disposed of,
which means that 250,000 metric tons of solid waste is cast into the streets of Accra each year.i This
refuse left in public places generally either gets burned by individuals and thus releases carbon
emissions and other harmful contaminants, or remains in these public locations for several weeks and
produces methane gases and toxic leachate. The current waste management system mainly consists of
compost and land-fill sites. Land-filling is undesirable because the sites harbor disease and emit large
amounts of methane. The existing waste management problems verify that the sanitation requirements
outlined in Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7.10 are currently far behind schedule.ii Along with
sanitation issues, Accra also experiences frequent blackouts at night due to high energy demands and
electricity shortages from lower water levels at the Akosombo Dam. These blackouts force home
owners to either run generators as their alternative energy source or simply go without power. Most
diesel generators burn gasoline and emit harmful exhaust similar to the pollutants exhausted from
automobiles. In a separate research proposal, the differences between several waste management
corporations and waste to energy (WTE) technologies are discussed. iii That proposal also recommends
London Waste as the manufacturer for the WTE plant to the client – the Accra Metropolitan Assembly
(AMA) – who has already dedicated funding towards the implementation of a WTE plant in Accra. In
order to bring global attention to these issues and assist the development in sanitation and waste
management in Accra, the following paper discusses the installation of a zero emission carbon capture
process, and the geological potential to implement a carbon sequestration and carbon management
system to the recommended WTE plant for the city of Accra.

I.2 Proposed Solution

The proposed solution is a self-sustaining waste management system that will be capable of
producing energy with zero emissions by capturing the carbon contents in the exhaust from the London
Waste WTE plant. This paper explores the geological and ocean sequestration opportunities in Ghana,
and proposes a carbon management system to generate revenue and expand research opportunities in
the field of carbon sequestration.

It is beneficial to have a basic understanding of the recommended waste management system in

Accra. First, the waste management corporation in Accra will be responsible for collecting existing trash
off the streets and bring it to the waste collection sites where it is sorted into combustible, compostable,
and recyclable wastes. Also, to encourage society to contribute to improving sanitation, any individuals
who physically bring refuse to the collection sites will be financially compensated depending on the
value and content of their waste. From these facilities, the combustible refuse is then delivered to the
WTE plant, the compostable refuse is composted, and the recyclable materials are sent to a recycling
facility. The WTE plant will produce power and ideally emit clean flue gas, thus making the entire waste
management system profitable and environmentally friendly. Once the plant has been constructed,

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carbon capture techniques can be implemented into the existing systems to achieve a zero emission
WTE plant. A portion of the carbon captured in the flue scrubbing process will be sold for use as a
natural gas, and the rest will be sequestered geologically or in the ocean as a research project for this
new technology. This plant will bring international focus to the city of Accra because it will be the first
plant of its kind. Carbon capture and storage is being considered as a viable long-term solution to the
increasing CO2 content in our atmosphere. The installation of this WTE plant in Accra will act as a model
of the policies and technology associated with zero-emission processes for the rest of the world, and will
simultaneously help improve the sanitation concerns and energy problems that currently exist in Accra.

II. Existing and Recommended Design Processes in Accra

II.1 Incineration WTE Plants
For the London Waste WTE plant, residual trash is initially brought directly to the plant from the
waste collection facilities, and is organized into various bunkers. Machinery transfers the waste into a
boiler grate that burns the waste at extremely high temperatures exceeding . The heat from the
boiler is directed into a steam generator. This steam drives turbines that generate electricity, which is
sent back to the electrical grid. For improved efficiency, the ash from the burnt waste is recycled and
can be reused for road construction in Accra. Next, the gas is cooled down to about and is sent
through a device called a precipitator that extracts dust out of the flue gas. Lime, carbon, and other
neutralizing chemicals are then combined with the gas to release clean water vapor from the system.
Notice here that carbon is actually added to the gas in order to neutralize chemicals and reduce its
acidity; however, carbon capture techniques can still be used to extract this carbon before the water
vapor is exhausted from the system. The block diagram of this described system is shown in Figure 1.
Such a system is about 85% energy efficient and can generate as much as 35,000 kilowatts of power
each hour.

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 iv
Figure 1: London Waste WTE Plant Schematic

An existing model of the recommended London Waste WTE incineration plant can be found in
the city of London and in the country of Denmark.v In London, recyclable items like glass, paper,
aluminum, co-mingled and plastics are taken to the recycling center. Organic waste, like kitchen scraps,
grass cuttings, is recycled into compost and used for agriculture, local allotments, gardens and farmland.
Finally, the residual waste is taken to the incineration plant. London Waste claims their WTE plant
produces enough electricity to power around 66,000 homes, and this metric would certainly have a
greater impact in a developing country such as Ghana.

The incineration plant in Denmark reduces the volume of the original waste by 95-96%
depending on the composition and degree of recovery of materials. This greatly reduces the amount of
waste that is placed in landfills. Denmark’s incineration plant produces 2MWh of district heating and
0.67MWh electricity for every ton that is incinerated. In 2003, approximately 3.3 million tons of waste
producing a total of 1.47 million MWh of electricity and 6.36 million MWh of district heating.vi

Typically, incineration is a better option from an environmental standpoint than landfills, but an
environmentally worse option than recycling.vii New waste incineration plants have a high initial
investment cost per unit energy produced. Also, the London Waste plant has a poor electricity
generation efficiency; however, it is has a very high heat efficiency compared to other WTE

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technologies.viii An incineration plant is a good choice for retrofitting with flue stack carbon capture as
the emissions are similar to coal burning power plants, for which flue stack treatment processes have
been established.

II.2 Gasification WTE Plants

Gasification is another WTE technique that is being developed as a cheaper, more efficient, and
more environmentally friendly alternative to incineration. Gasification WTE plants are also being
considered in Accra; however, they are not being recommended in the proposal because of high costs.
Nonetheless, the AMA is still considering the implementation of a gasification plant using the technology
from Environmental Energy Resources Ltd. (EER). The process uses high temperatures and a controlled
amount of oxygen to convert carbonaceous materials such as organic waste, as well as plastic waste,
into a gas mixture called synthesis gas (Syngas). Syngas is a combustible mixture of mainly carbon
monoxide and hydrogen gases (see Figure 2), and can generate electrical power in an engine or gas
turbine after being ignited.

Figure 2: Composition of EER SynGas

The conversion of municipal solid waste to electrical energy through gasification is a three step
process. EER refers to its version of the gasification process as PGM (plasma, gasification, melting). The
first step is a pre-treatment of the MSW in which the organic components of the waste are chemically
decomposed in a process called pyrolysis. The result is that the material is charred until a carbonaceous
residue is formed. The carbon-rich residue is then subjected to extreme heat, generating an exothermic
reaction producing the carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas of the Syngas. Finally, the Syngas is cleaned
and then ignited, powering a gas turbine or engine and generating as much as 1386 kWh/metric ton of

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electricity.ix The remaining material is melted and vitrified, producing stable and inert solids that can be
used as an aggregate in road construction.

Although gasification has great potential in terms of cheaper disposal per unit of waste (as in
Figure 3), and one-third of the volume of gas that requires treatment compared to incineration plants,
the technique still needs to be refined before it becomes a leading source of renewable energy.
Currently, the process still requires large amounts of energy to pre-treat the waste during pyrolysis and
to clean the Syngas. The result is that the gross electrical output of the technology is still relatively low.
Without electrical efficiency, the technology can still serve as a waste treatment technique but cannot
be considered as a viable source of renewable energy. In terms of carbon sequestration, gasification
also is the more environmentally friendly option. The main byproduct of the process is vitrified slag,
which is inert and encapsulates many of the hazardous materials that require treatment during
incineration. In addition, the process can use organic and plastic wastes as fuel without producing toxic
byproducts in the form of flue gas.

x
Figure 3: Disposal costs of waste using gasification and incineration techniques.

II.3 Recycling and Compost Systems

Currently there are both plastic recycling and composting facilities in the greater Accra area.
However, these facilities are generally under-utilized. There are presently two compost plants in Ghana.
The major one is in Nungua, a neighborhood in Accra, and the other is a community based mini plant in
the Asiedu Keteke Sub-metropolitan Area. xi These plants do not handle solid waste effectively because

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no separation of the waste occurs before being fed into the compost plants. The waste contains
substantial amounts of non-compostable materials such as plastics and light metals. The productivity of
the compost plants would be increased significantly by separating compostable materials. Many studies
have been done on the suitability of Accra’s municipal waste for composting, and most studies agree
that the conditions in Accra are ideal.

Plastic recycling can also act as a framework for the policies associated with carbon capture and
storage from the WTE plant in Accra. As will be the case with the amount of carbon captured, plastic
recycling is growing fast in the Accra Metropolitan area with a recycling capacity of 230 metric tons per
day, which still accounts for only 20% of the total plastic waste generated each day. The main recycling
plant, Pokuase, is being under-utilized, and the limitations in plastic waste management in Ghana may
be pointing to the lack of sustainable waste collection in the country. xii Fobil proposes a tax system for
recyclable products, similar those in the United States and other developed countries. He writes, “The
consumer plastic polluter paying a levy is meant to instill discipline in consumers regarding the way they
dispose of plastics and thus levy is retrievable by the consumer based on a tax refund system (or cash-
back).” He goes on to say that, “This kind of system has already proven to work informally in many cities
in sub-Saharan Africa as some low-income groups often pick-up potentially useful materials from the
curbside for resale to the public.” A similar system imposing taxes on non-carbon friendly factories
throughout Accra would need to be implemented in order for carbon management to be cost effective
considering that additional carbon capture and storage components would have high initial and
operational costs.

III. Overview of Carbon Capture and Storage Techniques

There are approximately 40 WTE facilities in the USA, and the technology is being manufactured
and improved by companies all over the world. The innovative designs typically do not include zero-
emission filtering components that are able to extract the carbon and other harmful emissions from the
incineration or gasification processes. However, carbon capture and storage techniques being
researched by the Earth and Environmental Engineering Department at Columbia University, and the
Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (WTERT) can be integrated into the flue stack of any
WTE plant.

The chemical process to isolate CO2 from a gaseous substance can be accomplished by including
a monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbing process and a series of filters in the flue stack of the WTE plant.
Since chemicals like sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or polypropylene brushes bond extremely well with CO2,
if we have multiple layers of porous filters and soil with various densities and to control the flow rate of
the exhaust in the flue stack followed by a layer of CO2 bonding compounds, some of the extraneous
gases will pass through these filters and be released into the atmosphere, but the carbon dioxide will
stay behind and bind to the filters. These filters will then be taken to another facility where the carbon
is extracted from the bonding materials through a chemical reversal process, and is prepared for carbon
sequestration or resale.

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 Once the carbon is isolated in the carbon capture process, it will be available for distribution in
three different ways:

1. Sold by the barrel to natural gas distribution companies in Accra to generate revenue.

2. Pipelined to northern Ghana for geological sequestration to improve WTE plant

sustainability and to preserve clean air.

3. Distributed to an experimental research facility for ocean sequestration technology in

collaboration with existing University research in Southern Ghana.

III.1 Carbon Capture

Since there are currently no WTE plants that use carbon capture technology, it is valuable to
compare the procedures used on coal fire power plants to verify whether or not similar technologies will
be suitable with the gaseous exhaust in the WTE plant. Especially for an incineration WTE plant, this
comparison is valid because of the similarities between flue gas mixtures for a coal fire power plant and
an incineration WTE plant. A typical fossil fuel fired boiler emits a mixture of CO2, O2, CO, SOx, NOx, and
fly ash while a typical WTE plant emits CO2, N2O, CH4, SO2, NOx, Cd, Pb, Hg, As, and fly ash.xiii, xiv The
predominant chemicals contributing most to the greenhouse effect are shared by both processes.
Therefore, analysis of the known carbon capture process using regenerable solvents for a coal fire plant
can be legitimately applied to the incineration WTE plant.

Post fossil fuel combustion, flue gas is cooled to between 40ºC and 60ºC before it is brought into
contact with the amine solvent in the absorber. The flue gas is then sent through a precipitator and
water-washed before it leaves the absorber. Typically, monoethanolamine is used as the amine solvent,
although recently improvements and alternative bonding agents such as polypropylene materials have
been proven to work just as effectively. Nonetheless, the solvent that now contains the chemically
bound CO2 is pumped into a regeneration vessel at a temperature between 100ºC and 140ºC which
removes the chemically bound CO2 by a heat desorption process. At the expense of energy losses due
to thermal heat, the steam generated is sent back to the regeneration vessel, and the CO2 product gas
leaves the system either for sequestration or resale. The full block diagram for this process can be seen
in Figure ## below. xv

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 Figure 4: Block Diagram for CO2 Recovery from Coal Fire Power Plant Flue Gas by MEA Absorption

The most significant setback of MEA scrubbing is the high additional costs due to the thermal
and electrical energy requirements of the system. Calculations from the University of Texas show that a
minimum of 0.11MWh per metric ton of CO2 of work is required to compress CO2 of coal-fired flue gas
to 150 bar.xvi This study also suggests that continuing to improve the MEA scrubbing process can reduce
the energy consumption to 0.2 MWh per ton of CO2 captured. These improvements can be interpreted
as a motivating factor for implementing the carbon capture process into the WTE plant in Accra because
the project scale is significantly smaller than the large-scale coal fire power plants in which a 0.2
inefficiency metric can represent millions of dollars in loss. Aside from the cost, the WTE plant presents
an opportunity to improve the MEA scrubbing process for a new (non coal fire) type of power plant.

Consider the block diagram of the London Waste WTE plant in Figure ##. The output of the
electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is gas exhaust from the combusted waste that is around 180ºC. Before
the gas enters the flue stack and is emitted into the atmosphere, it enters the gas treatment
components of the plant. This aspect of the process will not be modified when the carbon capture
components are introduced to the system. The gas will be cooled to around 140ºC by adding water,
lime, and activated carbons to neutralize acidity and absorb the pollutants that can have potential
health risks if introduced to the atmosphere such as Cd, Pb, Hg, and As. Without carbon capture
techniques, the resulting gas would be exhausted through a 100m tall chimney; however, the MEA
scrubbing process outlined above will be cascaded into the system before the flue stack.

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 Polypropylene brushes layer
Cascaded filters in flue stack

MEA scrubbing
process added in
series to system

Figure 5: London Waste Zero-Emission WTE Plant using MEA Scrubbing

In order to mimic the MEA scrubbing process for the coal fire power plant, the gas will have to be
cooled by approximately 80ºC before entering the solvent absorber for carbon capture. Also to
minimize the amount of additional energy required to cool down the gas, it could be diverted to holding
tanks until it cools to a suitable temperature for MEA scrubbing. Alternatively, to make the system more
efficient in terms of capturing carbon dioxide, once the nearly carbon-free flue gas exits the MEA
process, additional filters can be densely packed at the base of the flue chimney. Dense layers of sand
and soil will slow the flow rate of the exhaust and increase the pressure just before the extraneous gas is
sent to the flue stack. This will allow for two key improvements to efficiency. First, by adding a densely
packed layer of a similar bonding agent to the polypropylene resin brushes from the Earth and
Environmental Engineering Department at Columbia University, nearly all of the carbon that manages to
pass through the MEA scrubbing process will be absorbed because the gas will be moving slowly through
this layer.xvii Also, recall from the MEA scrubbing process that the flue gas is re-heated to remove the
chemically bound carbon from the solvent. Increasing the pressure by adding the dense layers of sand
or soil in the flue stack will correspondingly increase the temperature of the flue gas without requiring
additional energy.

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III.2 Geological Sequestration
In order to verify that there is real potential for successful geological sequestration in Ghana, an
existing geological sequestration project in Algeria can be examined. In 2004, BP, Sontrach, and Statoil
began a geological carbon sequestration project in the Krechba Formation in Algeria. This formation
consists of a depleted Gas reservoir of 1800 meter depth near a gas processing plant. Injection occurs
into this formation through a horizontal well. This project was implemented for an estimate cost of $2.7
billion for the purpose of setting precedents for regulations and verification of CO2 storage and obtaining
Carbon tax credits. The formation has demonstrated no leaks thus far, and is estimated to have a
seventeen million metric ton storage capacity. The CO2 is being injected at a rate of 1.2 metric tons per
year.xviii Monitoring occurs regularly as the CO2 is injected into the aquifer zone.xix This project’s success
is encouraging for future sequestration projects in Africa and the rest of the world. Many aspects of this
project can be taken for the Carbon capture project in Ghana. The pipelining methods, the monitoring
system, and the management of the project can all be implemented.

An in-depth study of the Krechba Field geology was conducted prior to the project. A similar study
must be done for the regions of Ghana which show potential for geological sequestration. Other
countries, such as Poland have already had analyses conducted to verify their viability for underground
storage.xx The geology of Ghana consists of about two thirds Paleoproterozoic Birimian rocks consisting
of five evenly spaced volcanic belts trending northeast-southwest. The intervening basins between the
volcanic belts are filled by sediments. The remaining one-third is made up of post-Birimian rocks.xxi
According to Dr. Erdelyi, the areas labeled B, E, F and G in Figure 4 are ideal for boreholes as water
supplies.

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 xxii
Figure 6: Hydrogeological Regions of Ghana

The most likely geological storage method in Ghana consists of injecting CO2 into saline aquifers. The
technologies to accomplish this exist and there are known saline aquifers scattered throughout Ghana.
The process involves piping the CO2 to an existing borehole, mixing it into brines, which are mixtures of
water saturated or nearly saturated with a salt, and pumping this mixture down into the borehole to the
saline aquifer layer. In the beginning stages of geological sequestration, the CO2 pipelines would run to
existing boreholes that hit known saline aquifers in the area labeled G in figure 4. This area is closest in

12
proximity to the WTE plant, and thus the CO2 pipeline would be short. As these aquifers filled, the
pipeline would be expanded to the areas E, F, and finally B.

In order to roughly estimate the Carbon storage capacity of Ghana in saline aquifers, a number of
assumptions must be made. The country is 230 thousand square kilometers, and the regions mentioned
by Dr. Erdelyi cover approximately 40 percent of the country. Making the assumption that half of these
regions have saline aquifers beneath them, 46 thousand square kilometers are available for storage.
According to Ferguson, over 600 boreholes have been drilled in Ghana. Their depths range from 100 to
1500 feet. In some of these cases the holes have been drilled through as much as 300 to 400 feet of
saline aquifer, which have been sealed off before tapping the abundant fresh water beneath.xxiii Taking
the average of the saline aquifer depth, the total volume of underground CO2 storage capacity is around
5000 cubic kilometers. Again, this is a rough estimate. A thorough investigation must be done in order to
determine the saline aquifer volume in Ghana.

The advantages of injecting CO2 into saline aquifers are that they are not used for any other purpose
and they are in abundant existence in Ghana. The disadvantages are that there are many unknowns
about the structure without thorough geological mapping and thus the longevity of the storage. Many
more advantages and disadvantages have been reported by MIT’s Mission 2013: Terrestrial Saline
Aquifer Sequestration.xxiv

Much investigation and research has been conducted on trapping Carbon in this type of formation.
The depth of the saline aquifers is important because they must provide enough pressure to keep the
CO2 supercritical, meaning it acts more like a liquid than a gas. The CO2 dissolves within the aquifer and
then reacts with other dissolved salts in the brines, and the rock wall of the aquifer. These reactions
produce carbonate minerals, thus permanently capturing the CO2 as rock. This is defined as a
mineralization Carbon capture process. The CO2 that is not mineralized remains trapped in the saline
aquifer granted there are no leaks.

A group from the US Geological Survey conducts experiments to determine the solubility of CO2 in
brines and the reactions between supercritical CO2 and fluids and host rocks that are characteristic of
deep-saline aquifers.xxv This group physically tests these conditions with their sophisticated apparatus.
On the other end of the spectrum, numerical simulations are popular in determining the lifetime of the
storage in the saline aquifer formations. Mohammad Piri and others from Princeton University’s
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have developed a compositional reservoir simulator
that is capable of modeling multi-component, isothermal multiphase flow of compressible fluid through
deformable porous media for direct application to the behavior of CO2 within a saline aquifer.xxvi Other
simulations are being conducted, taking into account local capillary trapping of CO2.xxvii This process uses
buoyancy driven migration of bulk phase CO2 within a saline aquifer so that the CO2 encounters a
capillary with a high entry pressure to accumulate CO2 in the saline aquifer.

From all the research conducted on Carbon sequestration of this type and the availability of saline
aquifers in Ghana, terrestrial saline aquifer sequestration is the most feasible and highest capacity
storage option.

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III.3 Ocean Sequestration
The proposed WTE plant can serve as a model for future technologies because the ideal
geographical location of Ghana may permit underwater carbon storage techniques to be tested and
researched. Although geological sequestration is considered the primary technique for carbon storage
in this proposal, if carbon sequestration becomes heavily pursued in the near future as the method to
safely capture carbon from the atmosphere, then underwater carbon storage technologies will be
critical in handling the demands of carbon capture. Therefore, the practices in Ghana can also present a
potential framework for implementing these currently premature technologies.

Although studies have been performed to examine potential sites for ocean sequestration, there still
remain only a few sites around the entire world where ocean sequestration techniques are actually
implemented. The most common methods for ocean sequestration are direct injection into the ocean
depths and iron fertilization.xxviii For direct injection, when CO2 is injected into seawater in liquid form, it
creates a plume that traps CO2 and prohibits it from reentering the atmosphere due to buoyancy.
However one of the most renowned problems with this technique is the current inability to examine
plume dynamics on a large scale. Once again, the convenient geographical location of Tema – the
tentative location for the WTE plan in Ghana – being less than 30 minutes from the ocean, and the
smaller scope of the project for effective and manageable testing of these new carbon sequestration
technologies make this site ideal.

However it is necessary to first verify whether the ocean waters in Southern Ghana can even
accommodate a small-scale ocean sequestration project. An existing ocean sequestration site in Kona,
Hawaii studied the plume effects of small CO2 discharges into the Pacific Ocean at a depth over 1000
meters. Ghana is home to two deep water ports off its Southern coast: one in Sekondi-Takoradi and
another in Tema. At both of these locations, the ocean depths reach nearly 2000 meters within 100 km
from shore. As with the site in Hawaii, the next step to determine the viability of ocean sequestration in
Ghana will be conducting an oceanographic survey of the Southern Atlantic Ocean bordering Ghana to
(1) understand water chemistry and density, (2) investigate the response of bacterial production to pH
level variations, (3) characterize any benthic communities, and (4) develop efficient methods to monitor
current pH levels.xxix Until this study is conducted, geological sequestration should take precedence in
the near future. However as the technology for storing carbon underwater will surely improve over the
next decade while the WTE plant is constructed in Accra, and geological sequestration will become
increasingly difficult to manage financially on a large scale, further studies on direct injection and
mineral sequestration should be conducted in Ghana.

III.4 Carbon Management Policy and Carbon Resale

There is a market for CO2 because food processing and manufacturing plants require carbon
dioxide for their processes.xxx Therefore to increase funds for maintaining a Carbon sequestration

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system at the WTE plant, a percentage of the carbon captured will be sold to a natural gas distribution
company within Ghana. An example of a company of this type is Inter-Mine Services Ltd. It is based in
Accra and regularly buys and sells activated carbon. They primarily supply various chemicals to mining
companies in Ghana.xxxi

Another way to increase funds for sustaining the Carbon capture and storage operation at the
privately owned WTE plant would be for the AMA to tax the major CO2 emitters in the area. The AMA
would have to establish a price per metric ton of CO2 emitted that would go towards the operation of
putting away Carbon through the discussed system. For example the price of CO2 in the project in
Algeria is $6 US per metric ton. This price includes the capture and storage per unit of CO2.xxxii The
Obama Administration in the United States has proposed a green house gas emissions policy that claims,
“as an incentive for companies [in the US] to pursue clean energy technologies, and to make the
transition less costly, the government is going to make major investments in companies who commit to
President Obama’s program to free the U.S. of foreign oil."xxxiii This goes in synchronization with Carbon
allowances for companies, where if a company exceeds its carbon limit, it must trade with another.
The market sets the price of Carbon credits. If a policy like this were set up in Ghana, the Carbon
sequestration operation could sell Carbon credits to the companies that exceeded their limit in Ghana.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an existing policy by which the AMA could to trade
Carbon credits with other countries. The way the mechanism works is by allowing industrialized
countries under the United Nations Convention Framework for Climate Change system and the Kyoto
Protocol to purchase emissions reduction which arise from projects located in non-industrialized or
developing countries.xxxiv A Carbon sequestration system as proposed for the WTE plant in Accra would
qualify for Carbon trading under CDM, and assuming a sufficiently low price per unit CO2 would be able
to sell Carbon credits to industrialized nations. The United States has strong relations with Ghana, emits
an excess of CO2, and given the president’s policy to invest in companies going green, investment from
the United States for a project such as this is not unlikely.

Liability for seismic events, water intrusion, CO2 detection, and pressure excursion would be the
responsibility of the AMA or whatever company would run the Carbon sequestration project.

IV. Carbon Capture and Storage Data Analysis

Aside from the technological obstacles, perhaps the biggest difficulty that will face the
integration of carbon capture and storage into the WTE plant are the policies regarding liability and
fiscal governance of the system. There will need to be incentives other than mere moral obligation to
reduce the carbon content in the atmosphere that will motivate investors to support the carbon
sequestration initiatives in Ghana. Most industries require incremental steps to achieve success, and
Carbon capture and storage will certainly be no different. World leaders in China and the US are all
doing their research on emission-free technologies; however, carbon capture and storage processes
have very few tangible metrics on cost that will give them reason to support these technologies in the

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future. Below, an outline is presented that may be used to propel financial incentives to support future
carbon capture and storage initiatives both in Ghana and as a model for similar policies in other parts of
the world.

Assume that 1 ton of CO2 is generated for each kilowatt of energy produced from the WTE plant,
and 3 tons of CO2 is generated from every one ton of fuel consumed. Now consider that in order for the
price of carbon to compete with natural gas and oil reserves, the price per barrel of CO2 needs to be
close to $30. Consider that the greatest amount of energy output from the WTE plant – thus the
greatest amount of carbon generated in the process – occurs when 100% of the 500,000 metric tons of
refuse generated in Accra each year gets delivered to the WTE plant. Since there are no WTE plants
currently capturing and storing carbon, the best approximation that can be made on the price of
sequestering carbon is to use the known price from an existing plant. The StatoilHyrdo carbon capture
plant in Norway that captures carbon from a gas processing plant has been used as a model for this
analysis. At StatoilHyrdo, nearly 2,800 tonnes of CO2 are extracted each day, and they estimate that it
will require nearly 600 billion tones of CO2 to fill the deepwater saline aquifer.xxxv At this rate, the price
of sequestering carbon is $17 per ton of CO2.

At first, this will perhaps be an improbable task because, in contrast to oil, when carbon is
sequestered underground the rocks are under compression due to pressure increases. Since friction
holds better under compression, the governing body of the carbon sequestration site will have to
expend more energy (and more money) on pumps and desalination processes to properly secure carbon
underground. Therefore this suggested price may be higher than $17 per ton of CO2. However,
improving research on this technology with potential for international, widespread use will certainly
attract investors and benefit the community in Ghana.

V. Feasibility and Future Outlook

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly can attract international attention to Accra, Ghana, and all of
Africa from environmentalists and investors by implementing a carefully outlined procedure to
ultimately install a WTE plant in Accra. The scope of this entire proposal may seem too large to fully
employ all at once. However, prioritizing the most important aspects of the proposal, and allotting
resources and finances for future work in carbon capture and storage techniques will allow for a smooth
transition from what will initially be a simple waste collection system to a fully operational zero-
emission WTE plant that distributes electricity back to the electrical grid in Accra. Also, by including
these long term initiatives in the project scope regarding environmental conservation and clean air
preservation such as carbon capture and storage techniques, the AMA can appeal to a broader range of
investors and researchers interested in getting involved with the WTE plant in Accra. The timeline in
Figure 4 outlines a potential long term scope for the implementation of carbon capture and storage to
the existing WTE plan proposal.

16
 •Waste collection, transportion, and waste-energy electricty generation
2015 are all fully operational

•Attract funding for carbon capture and storage research based on

2016 success of Wte plant power generation and sanitation improvements

•Research existing carbon capture and storage techniques as well as

2017 appeal to Universities to become involved with sequestration aspect

•Implement affordable and efficient carbon capture technology into flu

2018 stack of Wte plant exhaust

•Implement affordable and efficient carbon sequestration technology

2019 (geological or ocean storage)

Figure 7: WTE Plant Future Outlook for Carbon Capture and Storage

Approximately one year after the entire system is fully operational, the WTE plant will have
acquired valuable metrics on energy generation, and the associated carbon emissions. At this point, the
research and planning for the carbon capture and storage processes can begin because the scope for the
amount of carbon captured and the corresponding size of the geological sequestration tanks will be
known. During this phase, methods to eliminate the carbon dioxide emissions from the WTE plant will
be explored. There are also significant financial and moral incentives to explore this aspect to the
proposal. As larger nations like China and the United States consider carbon sequestration as a viable
option to help solve the problem of increasing carbon content in our atmosphere, researchers,
investors, and NGO’s from all over the world will recognize Accra as a potential site to explore carbon
sequestration technology, and will be eager to become involved.

VI. Conclusions
To support the current initiative to build a WTE plant in Accra, Ghana, it is recommended to
incorporate the intentions to implement the proposed carbon capture and storage process into the long
term scope of the WTE plant. Once the WTE plant is constructed within the next five years, an MEA
scrubbing process much like the existing technology integrated into coal fire power plants for carbon
capture can be built into the flue gas treatment process of the WTE plant. For carbon storage, pending a
low-cost geotechnical study of the surrounding areas of Accra, geological sequestration using saline
aquifers may be ideal. However, oceanographic surveys may also show that ocean sequestration is a
viable option, and may attract investors for research opportunities. Lastly, the AMA may also consider
the potential financial incentives to become involved with carbon capture and storage by defining a
policy that imposes tariffs on technologies and neighboring towns that do not own carbon credits.

17
VII. References
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