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Advances in Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2

A techno-economic investigation commissioned by the members of the Carbon Dioxide Capture & Conversion (CO2CC) Program

See PPT Deck here (as PDF) | See Report TofC here (as PDF)

So-called carbon negative technologies (those which reduce the existing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere) are necessary to capture CO2 which is not emitted from a point source and to reduce the total atmospheric CO2 back down to what is considered by climate scientists to be a safe level (e.g., 350 ppm). The method used to achieve this is known as “Direct Air Capture” (DAC) and over the last few decades several processes have been developed and are now being commercialized. As with point-source capture systems, the main technologies available are based on liquid solvents and solid sorbents. A regeneration stage is required to remove the captured CO2 from the solvent or sorbent and the various approaches are set out and compared in this report. Key technology providers including Climeworks, Carbon Engineering and Global Thermostat are included.

Emissions plot of a business-as-usual trajectory comparison to a pathway that leads to warming below 2°C, requiring NETs. Source: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 2017. “The Emissions Gap Report 2017 A UN Environment Synthesis Report.” Nairobi, Kenya.

The report considers the ways in which each of the DAC processes will be utilized, along with the enabling factors and challenges that they must overcome to impact climate goals. The report will be of interest to companies looking to develop a similar process, or to invest in an existing one as well as companies who may have a technology which could utilize the captured CO2 for a downstream chemical process. This is an important method to consider for making CO2 capture economically feasible and for decarbonizing a range of chemicals and materials. To date DAC has been applied to production of pure CO2 for food & beverages, and production of methanol and methane. It has major potential to be applied further for other chemicals, fuels as well as solid materials (plastics and building materials).

The PPT Deck, as well as a PDF containing the report’s complete TofC, List of Figures and Tables, are available here: See PPT Deck here (as PDF) | See Report TofC here (as PDF)

More information about this report and other services of the CO2CC Program can be seen at https://www.catalystgrp.com/php/tcgr_co2cc.php. Call +1-215-628-4447 or e-mail John Murphy at jmurphy@catalystgrp.com, and we’ll be happy to discuss these and other interesting membership benefits.