Assessing the physical potential capacity of direct air capture with integrated supply of low‐carbon energy sources

Steffen Fahr, Julian Powell, Alice Favero, Anthony J. Giarrusso, Ryan P. Lively and Matthew J. Realff

Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 170-188

Abstract: Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a negative emission technology that can remove up to 10–20 Gt of CO2 per year. However, to achieve this potential, DAC systems must be coupled to suitable locally available energy sources and sited near geological storage. This study explores the potential of low‐carbon energy sources to supply power and heat to the DAC process in a dedicated, self‐sufficient system tailored for each energy source. Solar, geothermal, woody biomass, wind, and nuclear energy sources are assessed for their global energy supply potential and possible land use requirements. While the options differ in area requirement and regional efficacy, we estimate that all the regionally specific technologies considered can supply energy to achieve significant removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere globally. The amount of energy physically available from solar, offshore wind, and woody biomass converts to a removal potential of 160–971, 45–150, and 2–5 Gt CO2/year, respectively. Thus, negative emission targets can be reached by utilizing a moderate fraction of the overall potential of several different low‐carbon energy sources for DAC while the magnitude of the potential changes significantly according to the source of energy. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.2136

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:greenh:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:170-188

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology from Blackwell Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().