CO₂-removal News

Webinar: Scrubbing the Skies -Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide: The State of Responsible Primacy

March 25, 12-1 pm CST, hosted by the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal

Industrial carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal are important strategies to reach global and national net zero CO2 emissions targets and to keep global temperatures at or below 1.5°C. The most common setting for permanently sequestering CO2 after it has been captured is underground, in very deep, impermeable rock formations. To regulate and monitor the sequestered CO2, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with administering the Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, whereby it sets regulatory standards and processes applications for underground wells with the goal of preventing contamination of drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act. A new issue brief from the National Wildlife Federation – Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide: The State of Responsible Primacy – examines the question of who should have authority over carbon storage wells: states or the federal government, an issue known as “primacy.” It includes details on what it takes to successfully permit a carbon storage well, why the federal government has encouraged states to apply for primacy, and how states like North Dakota, Wyoming, and Louisiana came to acquire primacy. The panelists, Jake Ferrell and Dr. Simone H. Stewart, will discuss their recommendations for ensuring primacy is done responsibly, with an emphasis on environmental justice and community engagement.

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Singapore to Build World’s Largest Facility to Boost Carbon-Removal Power of the Ocean

by Koh Ewe, Time, February 29, 2024

„The Equatic Process, a novel carbon removal technology and one of the best inventions of 2023, is getting a major scale-up, with the world’s largest ocean carbon dioxide removal facility set to be built in Singapore and operational by 2025—sparking optimism for what has been hailed as a potential game changer for global climate efforts after scientists agreed in 2022 that atmospheric carbon-removal technology will be necessary for the world to reach its climate goals.“

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De Pryck & Boettcher (2024): The rise, fall and rebirth of ocean carbon sequestration as a climate ’solution‘

Kari De Pryck, Miranda Boettcher IN: Global Environmental Change 85, 102820, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102820

In this paper, the authors seek to historicise the practices, discourses and actors that have constructed the ocean as a climate change solution space. They conceptualise the debate about the mitigation potential of the ocean as a contested site of governance, where varying actors form alliances and different sociotechnical narratives about climate action play out. 

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Balasubramaniam (2024): Process-performance of solid sorbents for Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 in optimized temperature-vacuum swing adsorption (TVSA) cycles

Bhubesh Murugappan Balasubramaniam, Phuc-Tien Thierry, Samuel Lethier, Veronique Pugnet, Philip Llewellyn, Arvind Rajendran IN: Chemical Engineering Journal 485, 149568, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.149568

The process performance of three amine-functionalized chemisorbents and two physisorbents was evaluated for direct air capture of CO2 in temperature-vacuum swing adsorption and steam-assisted temperature-vacuum swing adsorption cycles. The study showed that physisorbents, generally not studied for DAC, can be promising. Parametric studies revealed that the lack of multi-component thermodynamic and kinetic data impedes the objective evaluation of DAC processes.

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Berta & Roux (2024): The endless expansion of carbon offsetting: sequestration by agricultural soils in historical perspective

Nathalie Berta, Alain Roux IN: Cambridge Journal of Economics, beae008, https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beae008

The growing popularity of the idea of carbon budgets has contributed to a reshaping of climate policy goals in terms of carbon neutrality (net zero emissions) instead of strict emissions reductions. As a consequence, new legitimacy has been given to debatable efforts to use negative emissions for offsetting purposes. In this respect, sequestration by agricultural soils is now presented as a promising way to offset fossil carbon emissions. Adopting a historical perspective, this article studies the way soil sciences and economics amplified the political promise of agricultural sequestration, despite enduring concerns about its non-permanence and reversibility.

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Master thesis: Potential analysis of the integration of flexibly operated Direct Air Capture (DAC) plants in the heat and power system using the example of Hamburg

Moritz Rickert, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12738/14920

For climate neutrality by 2045, Germany must compensate unavoidable residual greenhouse gas emissions by negative emission technologies such as direct air capture technology. This study explores the technical feasibility and economic viability of implementing flexibly operated DAC plants in Hamburg’s district heating system in 2045.

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Menefee & Schwartz (2024): Quantifying the Value of Geologic Carbon Mineralization for Project Risk Management in Carbon Capture and Removal Pathways

Anne H. Menefee, Brandon A. Schwartz IN: Energy Fuels, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.4c00138

Carbon mineralization is the most secure form of carbon sequestration, but the value of mineral trapping relative to those of other mechanisms has not been quantified. Here, a techno-economic framework is developed to determine a levelized (investment) value of mineralization across a range of scenarios for CO2 capture or removal, injection schemes, and mineralization rates.

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Nawaz & Lezaun (2024): Grappling with a sea change: Tensions in expert imaginaries of marine carbon dioxide removal

Sara Nawaz, Javier Lezaun IN: Global Environmental Change 85, 102806, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102806

While research on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) expands apace, significant unknowns persist regarding the risks and benefits of individual mCDR options. This paper analyses the assumptions and expectations that animate expert understandings of mCDR, with a focus on issues that are central to the responsible governance of this emerging field of climate action.

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Green et al. (2024): Carbon dioxide removal via weathering of sugarcane-mill ash under different soil conditions

Hannah Green, Peter Larsen, Yang Liu, Paul N. Nelson IN: Applied Geochemistry, 105940, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2024.105940

Sugarcane-mill ash has been suggested as having high potential for carbon dioxide removal via enhanced weathering, but this had not been quantitatively assessed. The aims of this study were to 1) assess the CDR potential of various sugarcane-mill ashes via EW, and 2) investigate the impact of soil conditions and mill ash properties on the CDR. This was done by characterising physical and chemical properties of five mill ashes from Australia and simulating weathering using a one-dimensional reactive transport model. 

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Béres et al. (2024): Assessing the feasibility of CO2 removal strategies in achieving climate-neutral power systems: Insights from biomass, CO2 capture, and direct air capture in Europe

Rebeka Béres, Martin Junginger, Machteld van den Broek IN: Advances in Applied Energy, 14, 100166, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adapen.2024.100166

In this study the European power system in 2050 is modelled at an hourly resolution in the cost-minimization PLEXOS modelling platform. Three climate-neutral scenarios with targets of 0, -1, and -3.9 Mt CO2/year (which agree with varying levels of climate justice) are assessed for different biomass levels, and CCS availability. Findings under baseline assumptions reveal that in a climate-neutral power system with biomass and CCS options, it is cost-effective to complement variable renewable energy with a mix of combined cycle natural gas turbines (CCNGT) for flexibility and BECCS as base load to compensate for the CO2 emissions from natural gas and additional carbon removal in the net-negative scenarios.

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