Li et al. (2026): Accelerating widespread adoption of direct air capture based on system perspective: Thermodynamic limits, geographical deployment, and clean energy integration
Chunfeng Li, Shuai Deng, Xiangkun Elvis Cao and Shuangjun Li, IN: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2026.116702
Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a critical negative emission technology essential to achieve the global climate targets. However, its widespread adoption is hindered by a multitude of technical, economic, deployment, and sustainability challenges. The purpose of this review is to bridge this critical gap by deconstructing the challenges and opportunities for DAC through a novel, three-tiered analytical framework. Basically, the fundamental challenge of DAC lies in the high energy consumption and low exergy efficiency associated with COâ‚‚ enrichment from its low atmospheric concentration.