What is DAC technology?

The frontier of DAC technology is defined by the evolution of material science and process engineering. The pursuit of novel sorbent materials that are low in energy demand, the refinement of carbon capture processes, and the minimization of auxiliary energy inputs are all areas ripe for innovation.

What are the challenges faced by DAC technology?

One of the major challenges with the current DAC technologies are the capital cost, running energy cost because of inherent low concentrations of CO 2 in air, nearly 0.04%, and thermal regeneration process.

What is the DAC process?

The DAC process is particularly heat intensive, involving two primary stages that necessitate thermal energy to facilitate CO 2 processing. Details of liquid and solid sorbent carbon capture, including both absorption and adsorption processes, have been comprehensively explained in previous publications. 2, 20

How to choose a DAC plant?

Access to low carbon or renewable energy sources need to be a decision factor in choosing the location of the next DAC plant. Land and water consumptions are other considerations for DAC. For a modern liquid solvent DAC technology to capture 1 ton of CO 2, the system uses nearly 1–7 tons of water.

Is DAC economically viable?

Technology-based economic development in all three areas are required to achieve <$100/ton of CO 2 which makes DAC economically viable. Current DAC cost is about 2–6 times higher than the desired cost and depends highly on the source of energy used.

How much power does a DAC use?

Depending on the type and efficiency of capture process, a purification step may be added and this also increases energy needs of the DAC operation. A recent DAC cost analysis reports that 6 for a solvent-based 1 MtCO 2 /year DAC system requires about 300 MW power where 80% is thermal and 20% is electric.