Tag: Direct Air Capture

Peer-reviewed Publications

Bernecker & Müsgens (2026): Direct Air Capture in Europe – Where to Integrate, Where to Store, and What Drives Cost?

Maximilian Bernecker and Felix Müsgens, IN: arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.05990

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) can mitigate hard-to-abate emissions, e.g. from transport or industry. However, there is a wide variety of cost estimates for DACCS, driven, to a significant extent, by differences in electricity cost. At the same time, there is a notable gap in research that integrates direct air capturing systems into long-term energy system models. They separate direct air capturing, carbon transport, and carbon storage and integrate them into a European capacity expansion model for a fully decarbonised electricity system in 2050. They explore how two dimensions affect the total system costs of DACCS. The first dimension is the availability of CO₂ storage locations: In one analysis, storage locations are restricted to offshore storage locations in the North Sea only, i.e. depleted natural gas fields. The alternative analysis comprises suitable storage locations distributed across Europe, including onshore.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Bernecker & Müsgens (2026): Direct Air Capture in Europe – Where to Integrate, Where to Store, and What Drives Cost?

Maximilian Bernecker and Felix Müsgens, IN: arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.05990

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) can mitigate hard-to-abate emissions, e.g. from transport or industry. However, there is a wide variety of cost estimates for DACCS, driven, to a significant extent, by differences in electricity cost. At the same time, there is a notable gap in research that integrates direct air capturing systems into long-term energy system models. The authors separate direct air capturing, carbon transport, and carbon storage and integrate them into a European capacity expansion model for a fully decarbonised electricity system in 2050. The authors explore how two dimensions affect the total system costs of DACCS. The first dimension is the availability of CO₂ storage locations: In one analysis, storage locations are restricted to offshore storage locations in the North Sea only, i.e. depleted natural gas fields. The alternative analysis comprises suitable storage locations distributed across Europe, including onshore.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Qi et al. (2026): Study on direct air capture using Ti-doped K₂CO₃/ZrO₂ composite adsorbent: A combination of experimental, characterization and first-principles calculations

Zhuang Qi, Xiaoping Chen, Zelin Xu, Zi Liu, Jiliang Ma, Fengyuan Zhang and Cai Liang, IN: Chemical Engineering Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2026.175943

Direct air capture (DAC) technology is widely recognized as a promising strategy for achieving negative carbon emissions. Alkali metal-based composite solid adsorbents exhibit strong chemical affinity and high reaction selectivity toward carbon dioxide but often suffer from high regeneration energy consumption and low cycle efficiency, limiting their practical application. In this study, a K₂CO₃/ZrO₂ composite adsorbent doped by TiO₂ was developed to enhance DAC performance.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Han et al. (2026): Role of Epoxide Functionalization of Amines for Development of Direct Air Capture Sorbents with High Cyclic Working Capacity at Low Desorption Temperatures

Joo Yeon Han, Hayoung Jeong, Younghyu Ko, Yohan Cho, Seenu Ravi, Kyu-Min Ryoum, Hyug Hee Han, Yujin Choi, Chaewon Shin, Jeong Woo Han and Youn-Sang Bae, IN: Advanced Science, https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.75091

Broad implementation of the direct air capture (DAC) technology requires sorbents that can achieve high cyclic CO₂ working capacities (WCcyclic) at low desorption temperatures. This study shows that appropriate degrees of butylene oxide (BO) functionalization on amines with different molecular weights (polyethyleneimine (PEI1200 and PEI300) and tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (TREN)) can achieve excellent WCcyclic at low desorption temperatures (40–70 °C).

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Al-Ghussain et al. (2026): Geospatial techno-economic and life cycle assessment of renewable-powered direct air capture in Middle East and North Africa

Loiy Al-Ghussain, Mohamed G. Gado, Mohammad Alrbai, Sameer Al-Dahidi and Zifeng Lu, IN: Carbon Capture Science & Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccst.2026.100605

Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies powered by renewable energy are a promising approach for atmospheric carbon removal. This study presents a geospatial techno-economic and life cycle assessment of solar- and wind-powered electrified DAC systems across the Middle East and North Africa region. The authors evaluate how system sizing and regional resource conditions affect the cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity of CO₂ capture.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Hanes et al. (2026): Energy Emissions Accounting Methods Can Determine Whether Direct Air Capture with Storage Achieves Net Removal

Rebecca J. Hanes, Keju An, Wilson McNeil, Yijin Li, Isaias Marroquin, Soomin Chun, Sarah L. Nordahl, Kimberley K. Mayfield, Sarah E. Baker, Corinne D. Scown and Evan D. Sherwin, IN: Environmental Science & Technology, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c13494

The voluntary carbon market within the United States has expanded rapidly in recent years and enabled private companies and other organizations to provide revenue streams to carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. For a CDR technology to participate in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), the emissions associated with constructing and operating the technology must be less than the CO₂ captured from the atmosphere. Assessing the extent to which this is true for direct air capture with storage (DACS), a relatively energy-intensive CDR technology, strongly depends on the accounting method used to assess the emissions intensity of purchased energy. The authors simulate the hourly weather-dependent operation of sorbent- and solvent-based DACS in California, Louisiana, Texas, and Wyoming, representing a wide range of local weather and electric and natural gas grid compositions.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Chen et al. (2026): Synergistic CO₂-H₂O sorption kinetics of ionic exchange resin for moisture swing direct air capture

Sheng Chen, Renyu Xie, Yuxuan Zhang, Ying Ji, Tao Wang and Long Jiang, IN: Chemical Engineering Research and Design, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2026.03.037

Moisture swing adsorption (MSA) is considered as a promising negative emission technology for CO₂ direct air capture (DAC), but its kinetics description remains challenging due to the synergistic and interdependent sorption behaviors of CO₂ and H₂O. This study initially proposes H₂O-informed MSA kinetics characterization for D290 ionic exchange resin. By investigating the apparent sorption characteristics based on customized experimental platform, the research finding gives insights into the dynamic interdependence for binary-sorption.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Geissler et al. (2026): Geospatial Cost Comparison of Thermal Energy Technologies: A Sorbent-based Direct Air Capture Case Study

Caleb H. Geissler, Robin X. Zou, Mario Ramos, Benjamin M. Adams, Bjorn J. Brooks, Michael J. May, Erin N. Mayfield, Luke J. Venstrom, Jonathan D. Ogland-Hand, IN: Frontiers in Energy Research, https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2026.1703724

This study uses detailed process models for heat generated from sedimentary basin geothermal, concentrated solar, and a heat pump to generate geospatial results across the US, and explores the key parameters that make each energy source preferred. The authors use sorbent-based direct air capture (DAC) as a case study heat application and examine both the levelized cost of heat (LCOH), and the levelized cost of carbon removal (LCOR).

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Chiani et al. (2026): The Uncertain Policy Price of Scaling Direct Air Capture

Leonardo Chiani, Pietro Andreoni, Laurent Drouet, Tobias Schmidt, Katrin Sievert, Bjerne Steffen, and Massimo Tavoni,IN: arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.19143

Direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) is a promising CO₂ removal technology, but its deployment at scale remains speculative. Yet, its technological, economic, and policy-related uncertainties have often been overlooked in mitigation pathways. This paper conducts the first uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis of DACCS on technological, market, financial and public support drivers, using a detailed-process Integrated Assessment Model and newly developed sensitivity algorithms.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Li et al. (2026): Unveiling Advances in Membrane Materials for CO₂ Separation and Direct Air Capture (DAC): From Membrane Design to Applications

Guoqiang Li, Jakub Zdarta, Teofil Jesionowski and Agata Zdarta, IN: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6c01406

The application of membranes in the DAC process (m-DAC) is still in its infancy, owing to the low CO₂ concentration (400 ppm) in air. However, simulations and laboratory studies have demonstrated the feasibility of m-DAC. With the development of high-performance membrane materials and the design of multistage membrane processes, the implementation of m-DAC will be a promising strategy for the efficient reduction of CO₂ concentration in air. This review presents current studies on the m-DAC process and recently developed membranes for CO₂/N₂ separation which could be potentially used in that process, as well as highlighting research gaps that currently represent obstacles to the wider use of membranes for m-DAC.

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