Photo by rawpixel.com – www.freepik.comThe report provides a comprehensive outlook of the emerging CDR industry and carbon credit markets and predicts that by 2044 the world’s capacity for engineered CO2 removals will exceed 630 megatonnes per annum.
Negative emissions technologies (NETs), especially those that go beyond nature-based approaches to provide long-lasting scalable CO2 removals, have been receiving increased support through government policy and voluntary carbon credit purchases from corporations with ambitious climate goals.
The IDTechEx report focuses on technologies that actively draw CO₂ from the atmosphere and sequester it into carbon sinks, showing that these technologies are at vastly different stages of readiness. Some are nearly ready for large-scale deployment, while others require basic scientific research and further field trials.
Durable, engineered removals versus nature-based CDR solutions
Afforestation/reforestation solutions have historically dominated the supply of CDR due to their low cost and high maturity. However, demand for this type of removal carbon credit has been dropping in voluntary markets over the past few years due to several high-profile scandals and the low durability/permanence associated with nature-based CDR.
Instead, corporate buyers have increasingly turned towards highly durable, engineered carbon removal credits generated from approaches such as DACCS (direct air carbon capture and storage) and BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage). These removals offer credible climate action but have a high price tag and are in short supply. Most durable engineered approaches are yet to be included in compliance markets and, therefore, rely on pre-purchases from corporate buyers for early-stage commercial development.
Despite capacity currently being limited, there has been much interest in DACCS as a solution to permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and reverse climate change. DACCS is immediate, measurable, allows for permanent storage, can be located practically anywhere, is likely to cause minimal ecosystem impacts, and can achieve large-scale removals.
However, the rate at which DACCS can be scaled up is likely a limiting factor. The challenges of deploying DACCS include the large energy inputs (requiring substantial low-carbon energy resources), the high cost, and the sorbent requirements. The industry is aiming for the ambitious target of gigatonne-scale of DACCS removals by 2050. To make this happen, corporate action, investments, policy shapers, and regulatory guidelines need to come together to bring down the costs.
Although BECCS is currently the most mature and widely deployed durable engineered CDR technology, scale-up has historically been slow, and planned capacity is modest. Despite the technologies behind BECCS being relatively mature, there is a risk that using biomass for CO₂ removal and storage may compete with agricultural land and water or negatively impact biodiversity and conservation.
資料來源：Power Engineering International
