Removing Carbon Dioxide from the Hard to Abate Industries
Currently, the focus of CO2 emissions reduction is aimed at developing renewable energy resources, electrifying transport systems, improving building design and producing new materials with lower carbon emissions.
Unfortunately, there are a number of key emission sources which defy easy mitigation by existing scientific or engineering methods.
Two main areas that fall under the ‘hard to abate’ banner are:
Transportation
Transport accounts for a fifth of global carbon emissions each year with the culprits being largely commercial i.e. aviation and shipping, both of which cannot operate readily via electrification or hydrogen fuel.
Globally, these contributed about 0.95 Gt CO2/year (aviation) and 0.94 Gt CO2/year (shipping). However, the primary source of transportation emissions are light-duty vehicles, i.e., passenger cars, whose emissions stand at about 3.5 Gt CO₂/year.
Materials Production
The critical materials in this case are cement, lime and steel. Production of cement and lime for use by the construction industry results in global CO2 emissions of 1.93 Gt CO2/yr. Global production of steel (with significant recycling) entails emissions of around 2.5 Gt CO2/yr.
Conclusion
The total emissions from the above ‘difficult’ sources is therefore globally 6.33 Gt CO2/yr. These numbers are not insignificant and represent between 16 and 27% of total CO2.
With the exception of steel production, the CO2 generated by the above enterprises is directly emitted into the atmosphere. The only reasonable way to drive these emissions to-net zero is to employ Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology.
Considering the need to bring the concentration of global atmospheric CO2 back down to 350 parts per million from the current 422 ppm (see: Why Direct Air Capture), we at NEG8 Carbon strongly believe that DAC must play a key role in this endeavour.