Deep CCS: Moving Beyond 90% Carbon Dioxide Capture.

Area of Science:

• Climate Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Global climate targets necessitate large-scale carbon capture technologies.
• Current carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) models often assume ~90% CO2 capture efficiency.
• Reliance on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies at gigatonne scale faces viability challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of "deep CCS"—capturing significantly more than 90% of CO2.
• To assess the feasibility and benefits of deep CCS in decarbonization pathways.
• To evaluate the impact of deep CCS on CDR strategies and resource burdens.

Main Methods:

• Review of emerging literature on advanced materials and process design for enhanced CO2 capture.
• Analysis of cost implications for incremental increases in CCS capture efficiency.
• Modeling of potential CO2 emissions avoidance with deep CCS deployment.

Main Results:

• Deep CCS is feasible with low incremental costs.
• Rapid deployment could avoid over 1 gigatonne of CO2 globally per year.
• Deep CCS principles can alleviate land and freshwater burdens for bioenergy with CCS.

Conclusions:

• Deep CCS presents a viable strategy to meet climate targets, complementing CDR.
• Advancements in materials and process design enable efficiencies beyond 90% CO2 capture.
• Implementing deep CCS can significantly reduce the strain on CDR technologies and associated resources.