DAC-TALES: Direct Air Capture- Transdisciplinary Assessment Combining Labs, the Environment, the Economy, and Society
A promising technology for negative emissions is direct air capture of CO2 with subsequent storage (DACCS). DAC-TALES assesses the potential of the DACCS technology using an interdisciplinary approach.
Direct Air (Carbon) Capture and Storage (DACCS) of CO2 from the atmosphere is widely discussed in politics and science as a measure to compensate for residual emissions that are very difficult or very cost-intensive to avoid. The first commercial DACCS plants are already in operation. Guiding politics and research for implementing DACCS, It is crucial to determine the potentials as well as the risks and challenges for large-scale deployment in order to prepare the appropriate direction in politics and research regarding the use of DACCS in the coming years.
Available studies consider the evaluation of DACCS based on technological, ecological, economic, or social aspects. So far, these aspects have mainly been studied separately. However, for the large-scale deployment of DACCS, an integrated, transdisciplinary and multi-scale assessment method is required.
Within the DAC-TALES project, data from laboratory experiments will be used to build Direct Air Capture (DAC) models, e.g. to be able to predict the energy demand of CO2 capture depending on operation modes and capture materials. These models are then linked to CO2 storage and integrated into an energy system model. Thereby, system-wide effects can be investigated along the entire DACCS value chain. Life-cycle and techno-economic analysis will be used to assess the environmental and economic impacts of deploying DACCS on a climate-relevant scale. In addition, the social acceptance of DACCS will be investigated in order to identify social barriers at an early stage. The results from the acceptance research are continuously fed back into the technical development. Subsequently, a climate economic assessment will be used to determine the social value of DACCS under multiple risks from a global perspective.
The transdisciplinary assessment approach in DAC-TALES allows to determine at what scale and how fast the deployment of DACCS needs to be carried out to impact climate change effectively. Thus, the DAC-TALES project can contribute to shaping the future policy and research agenda regarding the deployment of DACCS.
Project management
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.Ing. Niklas von der Aßen
RWTH Aachen University, Lehrstuhl für Technische Thermodynamik
Schinkelstr. 8, 52062 Aachen
Phone.: +49 241 80 95987
Email: niklas.vonderassen@ltt.rwth-aachen.de
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