Building DACCS the right way

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) is a contentious technology, primarily due to uncertainty surrounding its cost and scale. However, it may be the only viable means to mitigate emissions from certain processes. To better understand the feasibility of DACCS at scale in Europe, Maximilian Bernecker and Felix Müsgens from the Brandenburg University of Technology examined various scenarios. Six maps were created to illustrate potential approaches to capturing and storing 100 Mt CO2 annually.

In the top row, storage locations and pipelines are depicted without considering existing energy infrastructure and emissions sites. The middle row presents a network that incorporates existing electricity demand, while the bottom row shows scenarios integrated into the planning of power generation capacity, considering both conventional electricity demand and DAC.

Scenarios on the left assume storage exclusively in the North Sea basin, while scenarios on the right consider storage sites across Europe at suitable locations.

The number in the top right corner of each chart indicates the total storage capacity in each scenario. The analysis reveals that planning DACCS in isolation or adding it to the existing network results in a significantly different network compared to other scenarios. Moreover, these isolated networks would be considerably more expensive to build and operate.

The cost of building a standalone DACCS network with its own power supply would be estimated at €20 billion or more, compared to €15-17 billion for adding DACCS to the existing network or integrating it into the planning for new power generation. This translates to a roughly 30% difference in price, with an estimated cost of €215/tCO2 if storage is limited to the North Sea and the system is planned separately, as opposed to €151/tCO2 if the system is integrated and storage is permitted throughout the EU.