How Low-Carbon Heat Requirements for Direct Air Capture of CO2 Can Enable the Expansion of Firm Low-Carbon Electricity Generation Resources

Slesinski, Daniel; Litzelman, Scott J.

doi:10.3389/fclim.2021.728719

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The contribution of the different hydrogen pathways in meeting the global demand is taken from the previous works for the avoided emission calculations ( 53 , 54 ). The other essential parameters for the study, including the equipment specifications, have also been obtained from previous literature ( 42 , 55 – 64 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate sustainability through a dynamic duo: Green hydrogen and crypto driving energy transition and decarbonization

Lal,

You

2024

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Climate change persists as a pressing global issue due to high greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel–based energy sources. A transition to a greener energy matrix combined with carbon offsetting is imperative to mitigate the rate at which global temperature ascends. While countries have deployed faith in green hydrogen to accelerate worldwide decarbonization efforts, the concurrent rise of blockchain-operated crypto-applications, such as bitcoin, has exacerbated climate change concerns. In this study, we propose technological solutions that combine the green hydrogen infrastructure with bitcoin mining operations to catalyze environmental and socioeconomic sustainability in climate change mitigation strategies. Since the present state of crypto-operations undeniably contributes to worldwide carbon emissions, it becomes vital to explore opportunities for harnessing the widespread enthusiasm for bitcoin as an aid toward a sustainable and climate-friendly future. Our findings reveal that green hydrogen production, paired with crypto-operations, can accelerate the deployment of solar and wind power capacities to boost conventional mitigation frameworks. Specifically, leveraging the economic potential derived from green hydrogen and bitcoin for incremental investment in renewable energy penetration, this dynamic duo can enable capacity expansions of up to 25.5% and 73.2% for solar and wind power installations. Therefore, the proposed technological solutions that leverage green hydrogen and bitcoin mining, bolstered with appropriate policy interventions, can not only strengthen renewable power generation and carbon offsetting capacities but also contribute significantly to achieving climate sustainability.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate sustainability through a dynamic duo: Green hydrogen and crypto driving energy transition and decarbonization

Lal,

You

2024

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Their carbon capture efficiency reaches 93.1% and 85.4%, respectively [24]. DAC installations require a continuous energy supply for running fans and other equipment, as well as for heating to separate CO 2 from air in the scrubber [25]. Considering the relatively low concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere (about 400 ppm), the minimum theoretical work for CO 2 separation hovers around 20 kJ/mol CO 2 , while the value for capturing from point sources is significantly lower (e.g., about 8.4 kJ/mol CO 2 for aqueous amine-based flue gas capture).…”

Section: Cdr Assessment (Energy Economic and Environmental)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging Climate Action with Energy Security through CCS—A Multi-Disciplinary Framework for Assessment

et al. 2022

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Combining biomass-fired power generation with CO2 capture and storage leads to so-called negative CO2 emissions. Negative CO2 emissions can already be obtained when coal is co-fired with biomass in a power plant with CCS technology. The need for bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage has been identified as one of the key technologies to keep global warming below 2 °C, as this is one of the large-scale technologies that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. According to the definition of bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage, capturing and storing the CO2 originating from biomass, along with the biomass binding with carbon from the atmosphere as it grows, will result in net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. Another technology option for CO2 removal from the atmosphere is direct air capture. The idea of a net carbon balance for different systems (including bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage, and direct air capture) has been presented in the literature. This paper gives a background on carbon dioxide removal solutions—with a focus on ecology, economy, and policy-relevant distinctions in technology. As presented in this paper, the bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage is superior to direct air capture for countries like Poland in terms of ecological impact. This is mainly due to the electricity generation mix structure (highly dependent on fossil fuels), which shifts the CO2 emissions to upstream processes, and relatively the low environmental burden for biomass acquisition. Nevertheless, the depletion of non-renewable natural resources for newly built bioenergy power plant with CO2 capture and storage, and direct air capture with surplus wind energy, has a similar impact below 0.5 GJ3x/t of negative CO2 emissions. When the economic factors are a concern, the use of bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage provides an economic justification at current CO2 emission allowance prices of around 90 EUR/t CO2. Conversely, for direct air capture to be viable, the cost would need to be from 3 to 4.5 times higher.

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“…[8,13,14]). On the other hand, to the best of our knowledge, only two articles researched the potential synergies between DAC and nuclear fission ( [8,15]). McQueen et al [8] coupled a 1 GW e Westinghouse pressurized-water reactor with DAC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their work, they performed an economic analysis assuming that 5% of the steam is spilt from the main steam generator and diverted to the DAC. More recently, Slesinski and Litzelman [15] assessed the potential economic benefits of co-siting a DAC plant with an SMR, concluding that providing low-grade heat to the DAC could benefit the economics of the SMR. However, in their analysis, they considered a generic model (in type and size) of SMR and did not consider the temperature profile of the thermal demand of DAC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating direct air capture with small modular nuclear reactors: understanding performance, cost, and potential

Bertoni,

Roussanaly,

Riboldi

et al. 2024

J. Phys. Energy

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Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a key component in the transition to net-zero society. However, its giga-ton deployment faces daunting challenges in terms of availability of both financial resources and, most of all, large quantities of low-carbon energy. Within this context, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) might potentially facilitate the deployment of DAC.In the present study, we present a detailed thermodynamic analysis of integrating an SMR with solid sorbent DAC. We propose different integration designs and find that coupling the SMR with DAC significantly increases the use of thermal energy produced in the nuclear reactor: from 32% in a stand-alone SMR to 76-85% in the SMR-DAC system. Moreover, we find that a 50-MW SMR module equipped with DAC could remove around 0.3 MtCO2 every year, while still producing electricity at 24-42% of the rated power output.Furthermore, we performed a techno-economic analysis of the system, finding a net removal cost of around 250 €/tCO2 When benchmarking it to other low-carbon energy supply solutions, we found that the SMR-DAC system is potentially more cost-effective than a DAC powered by high-temperature heat pumps or dedicated geothermal systems. When DAC is integrated with waste heat from a geothermal power plant, the SMR-DAC would be likely more expensive. However, the SMR-DAC system would circumvent the limitation given by the availability of geothermal waste heat at a sufficiently high temperature.Finally, we evaluated the potential of future deployment of SMR-DAC in China, Europe, India, South Africa and the USA, finding that it could enable up to 96 MtCO2/year by 2035, which is in line with the global requirements illustrated in the Net Zero by 2050 scenario of the IEA. The impact of regional differences on the removal cost was also assessed.

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How Low-Carbon Heat Requirements for Direct Air Capture of CO2 Can Enable the Expansion of Firm Low-Carbon Electricity Generation Resources

Cited by 11 publications

References 13 publications

Climate sustainability through a dynamic duo: Green hydrogen and crypto driving energy transition and decarbonization

Climate sustainability through a dynamic duo: Green hydrogen and crypto driving energy transition and decarbonization

Merging Climate Action with Energy Security through CCS—A Multi-Disciplinary Framework for Assessment

Integrating direct air capture with small modular nuclear reactors: understanding performance, cost, and potential

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