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Carbon Dioxide Capture from Air: A Simple Analysis

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  • Stefano Brandani

    (Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage Centre, School of Engineering The University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH9 3JL. UK)

Abstract

A simplified analysis is presented in order to compare direct capture of carbon dioxide from air, i.e. air capture, and capture from fossil fuelled power plants. For air capture the literature shows conflicting data on the estimates of the costs of the technology, which range from 30 US$/t CO 2 to $1000 US$/t CO 2 . This clearly creates uncertainty especially for those who have to implement long term policies to mitigate climate change. The aim of this contribution is not to assign a fixed cost to air capture, but to show that it is possible to make a common sense estimate of the ratios of cost and energy requirement of air capture compared to carbon capture from power plants. These ratios are at least 10 times for the cost and 3 to 4 times for the energy needed to produce a high purity carbon dioxide stream at atmospheric pressure.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Brandani, 2012. "Carbon Dioxide Capture from Air: A Simple Analysis," Energy & Environment, , vol. 23(2-3), pages 319-328, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:23:y:2012:i:2-3:p:319-328
    DOI: 10.1260/0958-305X.23.2-3.319
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Keith & Minh Ha-Duong & Joshua K. Stolaroff, 2006. "Climate strategy with CO2 capture from the air," Post-Print halshs-00003926, HAL.
    2. Daniel Sarewitz & Richard Nelson, 2008. "Three rules for technological fixes," Nature, Nature, vol. 456(7224), pages 871-872, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Santori, Giulio & Charalambous, Charithea & Ferrari, Maria-Chiara & Brandani, Stefano, 2018. "Adsorption artificial tree for atmospheric carbon dioxide capture, purification and compression," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1158-1168.
    2. Tobias Pröll & Florian Zerobin, 2019. "Biomass-based negative emission technology options with combined heat and power generation," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 1307-1324, October.

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    Keywords

    Air capture; Carbon capture;

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