Sector-wide, the construction, engineering, and equipment manufacturing sectors combined could see at least 300,000 new jobs with DAC at full scale. 7 A typical 1 MtCO 2 capacity DAC plant can generate roughly 3,500 jobs across the sectors in the US. Pilot-scale systems are operating in the US$300-600 per ton range today, but recent research by the National Academies of Sciences estimates that costs could fall to around US$100 per ton with further development and deployment experience. 6 While removal rates from natural carbon removal processes may flatten as available land is used up, carbon removal via DAC can be increased over time.Īdditionally, the costs of DAC will only decrease as more plants are built, allowing for optimisation through experience. They require much less land area per unit of captured CO 2 than removal through trees or soils even when powered by land-intensive energy sources like solar. As sustainable deployment of natural removal approaches alone may not be enough, direct air capture’s virtually unlimited potential would be key to help make up any shortfall.ĭAC systems can be built almost anywhere, allowing for placement near low-carbon energy sources, CO 2 storage sites or locations where the captured CO 2 can be utilised. With enough low-carbon energy, the technology can be scaled in a way that natural carbon capture or mineralisation cannot given constraints on available land area and access to reactive source material. The main selling point of DAC is that it has no clear upper bound to its technical potential. 4 By comparison, global clean energy investment in 2019 was US$363bn. Realising this scale of deployment would require between US$40bn and US$750bn in related infrastructure investments. 2īased on an estimated potential deployment of 0.5-5bn tons of CO 2 captured each year by 2050, 3 the DAC market could exceed US$500bn per year (assuming a carbon price of US$100 per ton). While market value remains uncertain, some estimates point to upwards of US$100bn in potential value by 2030. In the near term it may be possible to accelerate DAC deployment by using captured CO 2 to produce lower-carbon or even net-negative versions of conventional products like fuels, chemicals, building materials and beverages. DAC is highly energy intensive and requires low-carbon energy sources to provide net carbon removal. That CO 2 can then be used or stored underground. Once the capture agent is saturated, heat is applied to release the collected CO 2 and regenerate the capture agent for reuse. The DAC systems operating today remove CO 2 from the atmosphere with a liquid solvent or solid sorbent that binds CO 2 and separates it from other gases in the air.
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