TY - JOUR
T1 - Cost Analysis of Direct Air Capture and Sequestration Coupled to Low-Carbon Thermal Energy in the United States
AU - McQueen, Noah
AU - Psarras, Peter
AU - Pilorgé, Hélène
AU - Liguori, Simona
AU - He, Jiajun
AU - Yuan, Mengyao
AU - Woodall, Caleb M.
AU - Kian, Kourosh
AU - Pierpoint, Lara
AU - Jurewicz, Jacob
AU - Lucas, J. Matthew
AU - Jacobson, Rory
AU - Deich, Noah
AU - Wilcox, Jennifer
N1 - The authors would like to thank Dr. Chad Augustine of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Dr. Charlene Wardlow, Geothermal Plant Manager for the California Department of Conservation, and Dr. Roger Aines, Energy Program Chief Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for their helpful guidance and discussions on the geothermal pathways considered in this study. Also, the authors would like to acknowledge Professor Sally Benson and Ph.D. Candidate, EJ Baik from Stanford University for their assistance in gathering the basin-level injection data and its analysis for geological storage. In addition, the authors would like to thank ClimateWorks Foundation for their financial support toward the completion of this project.
PY - 2020/6/16
Y1 - 2020/6/16
N2 - Negative emissions technologies will play an important role in preventing 2 °C warming by 2100. The next decade is critical for technological innovation and deployment to meet mid-century carbon removal goals of 10-20 GtCO2/yr. Direct air capture (DAC) is positioned to play a critical role in carbon removal, yet remains under paced in deployment efforts, mainly because of high costs. This study outlines a roadmap for DAC cost reductions through the exploitation of low-temperature heat, recent U.S. policy drivers, and logical, regional end-use opportunities in the United States. Specifically, two scenarios are identified that allow for the production of compressed high-purity CO2 for costs ≤$300/tCO2, net delivered with an opportunity to scale to 19 MtCO2/yr. These scenarios use thermal energy from geothermal and nuclear power plants to produce steam and transport the purified CO2 via trucks to the nearest opportunity for direct use or subsurface permanent storage. Although some utilization pathways result in the re-emission of CO2 and cannot be considered true carbon removal, they would provide economic incentive to deploying DAC plants at scale by mid-century. In addition, the federal tax credit 45Q was applied for qualifying facilities (i.e., producing ≥100 ktCO2/yr).
AB - Negative emissions technologies will play an important role in preventing 2 °C warming by 2100. The next decade is critical for technological innovation and deployment to meet mid-century carbon removal goals of 10-20 GtCO2/yr. Direct air capture (DAC) is positioned to play a critical role in carbon removal, yet remains under paced in deployment efforts, mainly because of high costs. This study outlines a roadmap for DAC cost reductions through the exploitation of low-temperature heat, recent U.S. policy drivers, and logical, regional end-use opportunities in the United States. Specifically, two scenarios are identified that allow for the production of compressed high-purity CO2 for costs ≤$300/tCO2, net delivered with an opportunity to scale to 19 MtCO2/yr. These scenarios use thermal energy from geothermal and nuclear power plants to produce steam and transport the purified CO2 via trucks to the nearest opportunity for direct use or subsurface permanent storage. Although some utilization pathways result in the re-emission of CO2 and cannot be considered true carbon removal, they would provide economic incentive to deploying DAC plants at scale by mid-century. In addition, the federal tax credit 45Q was applied for qualifying facilities (i.e., producing ≥100 ktCO2/yr).
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.0c00476
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.0c00476
M3 - Article
C2 - 32412237
AN - SCOPUS:85086524211
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 54
SP - 7542
EP - 7551
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 12
ER -