Can advanced adsorbents make direct air capture scalable? With continued progress in sorbents, energy integration, and policy frameworks, DAC can help transform CO 2 into a manageable resource
Vahide Nuran Mutlu SOCAR Türkiye Research & Development and Innovation
T he concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere has increased by more than 50% since the Industrial Revolution. This invisible gas is the primary driver of global warming, and now, with every breath we take, we inhale 420 ppm of CO₂. But what if we could extract the CO₂ out of the air? Direct air capture (DAC) offers the possibility of actively removing excess carbon from the ambient air (see Figure 1 ) and is emerging as one of the boldest solutions for tackling the climate crisis. This capability is essential for offsetting residual emissions from sectors where decarbonisation is difficult, such as aviation and shipping, while also addressing historical emissions that have led to the increased atmospheric concentration (Lebling, Leslie-Bole, Byrum, Bridgwater, 2022) .
The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) both consider DAC to be an essential technology. In the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 Scenario, DAC must scale from today’s 0.01 MtCO₂/year to 85 MtCO₂/year by 2030, building to nearly 1 GtCO₂/year by 2050. Yet DAC faces significant technical and economic barriers related to high energy consumption, material durability, and cost-effectiveness. Current capture costs range from $250 to $600/t CO₂, although advancements in adsorbent materials and process efficiency are expected to reduce these costs to below $100 per tonne by 2030 (IEA, 2021) . Science behind direct air capture The idea of pulling CO₂ directly from the air, grabbing invisible molecules floating around
Use Using captured CO as an input or feedstock to create products or services.
Transport Moving compressed CO by ship or pipeline from the point of capture to the point of use or storage.
Capture Capturing CO from fossil or biomass-fuelled power stations, industrial facilities or directly from the air.
Storage Permanently storing CO in underground geological formations, onshore or o shore.
Figure 1 Carbon capture and storage infographic
Credit: iea.org
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