Regional Techno-economic Analysis of Different Solid Sorbent-based Direct Air Capture Configurations

12 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2022

See all articles by Marwan Sendi

Marwan Sendi

Imperial College London - Centre for Process Systems Engineering (CPSE)

Mai Bui

Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London; Imperial College London

Niall Mac Dowell

Imperial College London - Centre for Environmental Policy

Paul Fennell

Imperial College London

Date Written: November 14, 2022

Abstract

Direct air capture (DAC) combined with storage has the potential to deliver carbon dioxide removal (CDR) at scale and will likely play an important role in achieving climate and net-zero targets. The ambient condition of air differs widely across regions with seasonal and daily variations – this can have a major impact on DAC process performance. In this work, we investigate the effect of ambient conditions on two solid sorbent-based DAC configurations: vacuum-pressure temperature swing adsorption (VTSA) and steam-assisted vacuum-pressure temperature swing adsorption (SA-VTSA) and show how they perform in different regions of the world. We found that colder regions where the temperature does not drop below −15°C for a substantial part of the year can provide better process productivity, while drier regions can provide lower energy requirements. Based on the calculated regional DAC process performance and interest rate, the calculated Levelized cost of DAC (LCOD) for the VTSA cycle ranges between $348−603 per tCO2, captured from the air assuming an electricity price of $50 per MWh. Adding a steam purging step was shown to reduce LCOD in all regions by up to 15% in hotter and drier regions.

Keywords: Negative emission technologies (NETs), carbon dioxide removal (CDR), direct air capture (DAC), solid sorbent-based adsorption, techno-economic analysis, cost

Suggested Citation

Sendi, Marwan and Bui, Mai and Mac Dowell, Niall and Fennell, Paul, Regional Techno-economic Analysis of Different Solid Sorbent-based Direct Air Capture Configurations (November 14, 2022). Proceedings of the 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference (GHGT-16) 23-24 Oct 2022, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4276171 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4276171

Marwan Sendi

Imperial College London - Centre for Process Systems Engineering (CPSE) ( email )

South Kensington Campus
London, SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom

Mai Bui

Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London ( email )

United Kingdom

Imperial College London ( email )

South Kensington Campus
Exhibition Road
London, Greater London SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.bui

Niall Mac Dowell

Imperial College London - Centre for Environmental Policy ( email )

United Kingdom

Paul Fennell (Contact Author)

Imperial College London ( email )

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