Coal-to-olefins (CTO) has been attracting more attention of the chemical process industry, in the light of the scarcity of oil resources and richness of coal in China. However, it is inherently accompanied with the problem of severe greenhouse gas emissions. CTO processes therefore face increasing challenges from other alternative processes, especially methanol-to-olefins (MTO) process. This paper conducts a detailed techno-economic analysis of the CTO process with CCS. The effect of carbon capture is studied. The CTO process with 80% carbon capture is slightly less thermodynamically efficient than the conventional CTO process. The corresponding mitigation cost of the process is 150 RMB/t, which is roughly equivalent to the current carbon price. Thus, the effect of energetic and economic penalties on this carbon capture configuration is negligible. In comparison to the MTO process, the CTO process with CCS is competitive in product cost even considering carbon tax and it is capable of resisting to market risk. CTO processes with appropriate CO2 reduction are more applicable to olefins industry in China. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.