Environmental trade-offs of direct air capture technologies in climate change mitigation toward 2100.

ABSTRACT: Direct air capture (DAC) is critical for achieving stringent climate targets, yet the environmental implications of its large-scale deployment have not been evaluated in this context. Performing a prospective life cycle assessment for two promising technologies in a series of climate change mitigation scenarios, we find that electricity sector decarbonization and DAC technology improvements are both indispensable to avoid environmental problem-shifting. Decarbonizing the electricity sector improves the sequestration efficiency, but also increases the terrestrial ecotoxicity and metal depletion levels per tonne of CO₂ sequestered via DAC. These increases can be reduced by improvements in DAC material and energy use efficiencies. DAC exhibits regional environmental impact variatio

SUBMITTER: Qiu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9233692 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature