Imperial College London
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Professor Niall Mac Dowell FIChemE FRSC

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy

Professor of Future Energy Systems
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9298niall Website

 
 
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Location

 

16 Prince's GardensSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Brandl:2021:10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103239,
author = {Brandl, P and Bui, M and Hallett, JP and Mac, Dowell N},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103239},
journal = {International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control},
pages = {1--16},
title = {Beyond 90% capture: Possible, but at what cost?},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103239},
volume = {105},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will have an essential role in meeting our climate change mitigation targets. CCS technologies are technically mature and will likely be deployed to decarbonise power, industry, heat, and removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. The assumption of a 90% CO2 capture rate has become ubiquitous in the literature, which has led to doubt around whether CO2 capture rates above 90% are even feasible. However, in the context of a 1.5°C target, going beyond 90% capture will be vital, with residual emissions needing to be indirectly captured via carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. Whilst there will be trade-offs between the cost of increased rates of CO2 capture, and the cost of offsets, understanding where this lies is key to minimising the dependence on CDR. This study quantifies the maximum limit of feasible CO2 capture rate for a range of power and industrial sources of CO2, beyond which abatement becomes uneconomical. In no case, was a capture rate of 90% found to be optimal, with capture rates of up to 98% possible at a relatively low marginal cost. Flue gas composition was found to be a key determinant of the cost of capture, with more dilute streams exhibiting a more pronounced minimum. Indirect capture by deploying complementary CDR is also assessed. The results show that current policy initiatives are unlikely to be sufficient to enable the economically viable deployment of CCS in all but a very few niche sectors of the economy.
AU  - Brandl,P
AU  - Bui,M
AU  - Hallett,JP
AU  - Mac,Dowell N
DO  - 10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103239
EP  - 16
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 1750-5836
SP  - 1
TI  - Beyond 90% capture: Possible, but at what cost?
T2  - International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103239
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750583620306642?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/86290
VL  - 105
ER  -
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