Direct air capture (DAC) is technically feasible today, with commercial units already in operation. However, understanding DAC’s economic feasibility is required to understand whether DAC will be a significant negative emissions technology. Several start-up companies are trying to commercialize DAC using processes based on chemical absorption or adsorption. Today, there is only one DAC installation generating negative emissions, with a selling price of about $1,100 per metric ton of CO2. In this talk, Herzog will explore the process fundamentals that apply to all types of DAC processes, look at the process design for the two major types of DAC processes being developed today, and assess estimates for DAC costs going forward.

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This webinar took place on January 26, 2021.

About the speakers:

Howard J. Herzog is a senior research engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). He received his undergraduate and graduate education in chemical engineering at MIT. He has industrial experience with Eastman Kodak, Stone & Webster, Aspen Technology, and Spectra Physics. Since 1989, he has been on the MIT research staff, where he works on sponsored research involving energy and the environment, with an emphasis on greenhouse gas mitigation technologies. He was a coordinating lead author for the IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (released September 2005) and a U.S. delegate to the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum's Technical Group (June 2003-September 2007). He was awarded the 2010 Greenman Award by the IEAGHG “in recognition of contributions made to the development of greenhouse gas control technologies.” In 2018, he authored a book titled Carbon Capture for the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. He is currently executive director of MITEI’s Low-Carbon Energy Center for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage.

Robert J. Stoner is the deputy director for science and technology at MITEI, founding director of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, and faculty co-director of the MITEI Low-Carbon Energy Center for Electric Power Systems. He is currently a member of the MIT Energy Council, the Science and Technology Committee of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Technical Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Science, Technology, and Energy Policy. He is also a member of the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Global Commission to End Energy Poverty, and serves as its secretary. Stoner is the inventor of numerous computational and ultrafast optical measurement techniques, and has built and managed successful technology firms in the semiconductor, IT, and optics industries. His present research at MIT focuses on energy storage technology and policy, and the design and optimization of energy systems and business models in the developing world.

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