TY - JOUR
T1 - Generation with humidity swing direct air capture of CO2 versus mea-based postcombustion capture
AU - van der Giesen, Coen
AU - Meinrenken, Christoph J.
AU - Kleijn, René
AU - Sprecher, Benjamin
AU - Lackner, Klaus
AU - Kramer, Gert Jan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is financed in part by the BioSolar Cells open innovation consortium, supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. We thank Josh B. Browne and Zarah E. L’Heureux for expert help with Aspen.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/1/17
Y1 - 2017/1/17
N2 - Most carbon capture and storage (CCS) envisions capturing CO2 from flue gas. Direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 has hitherto been deemed unviable because of the higher energy associated with capture at low atmospheric concentrations. We present a Life Cycle Assessment of coalfired electricity generation that compares monoethanolamine (MEA)-based postcombustion capture (PCC) of CO2 with distributed, humidity-swing-based direct air capture (HSDAC). Given suitable temperature, humidity, wind, and water availability, HS-DAC can be largely passive. Comparing energy requirements of HS-DAC and MEA-PCC, we find that the parasitic load of HS-DAC is less than twice that of MEAPCC (60-72 kJ/mol versus 33-46 kJ/mol, respectively). We also compare other environmental impacts as a function of net greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation: To achieve the same 73% mitigation as MEA-PCC, HS-DAC would increase nine other environmental impacts by on average 38%, whereas MEA-PCC would increase them by 31%. Powering distributed HS-DAC with photovoltaics (instead of coal) while including recapture of all background GHG, reduces this increase to 18%, hypothetically enabling coal-based electricity with net-zero life-cycle GHG. We conclude that, in suitable geographies, HS-DAC can complement MEA-PCC to enable CO2 capture independent of time and location of emissions and recapture background GHG from fossil-based electricity beyond flue stack emissions.
AB - Most carbon capture and storage (CCS) envisions capturing CO2 from flue gas. Direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 has hitherto been deemed unviable because of the higher energy associated with capture at low atmospheric concentrations. We present a Life Cycle Assessment of coalfired electricity generation that compares monoethanolamine (MEA)-based postcombustion capture (PCC) of CO2 with distributed, humidity-swing-based direct air capture (HSDAC). Given suitable temperature, humidity, wind, and water availability, HS-DAC can be largely passive. Comparing energy requirements of HS-DAC and MEA-PCC, we find that the parasitic load of HS-DAC is less than twice that of MEAPCC (60-72 kJ/mol versus 33-46 kJ/mol, respectively). We also compare other environmental impacts as a function of net greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation: To achieve the same 73% mitigation as MEA-PCC, HS-DAC would increase nine other environmental impacts by on average 38%, whereas MEA-PCC would increase them by 31%. Powering distributed HS-DAC with photovoltaics (instead of coal) while including recapture of all background GHG, reduces this increase to 18%, hypothetically enabling coal-based electricity with net-zero life-cycle GHG. We conclude that, in suitable geographies, HS-DAC can complement MEA-PCC to enable CO2 capture independent of time and location of emissions and recapture background GHG from fossil-based electricity beyond flue stack emissions.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.6b05028
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.6b05028
M3 - Article
C2 - 27935700
AN - SCOPUS:85027519883
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 51
SP - 1024
EP - 1034
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 2
ER -