Reply to “High energy and materials requirement for direct air capture calls for further analysis and R&D”

摘要

We are writing in response to Chatterjee and Huang’s analysis on the material and energy requirements of Direct Air Carbon Capture and Sequestration (DACCS) plants, which cites our recently published paper on the potential role of such technologies in deep mitigation pathways. We agree with the authors that not only a thorough technoeconomic analysis but also a material and energy-needs assessment should be undertaken before any realistic role for DACCS can be finalized. This requires including life-cycle assessment (LCA) in the technoeconomic analysis provided by integrated assessment model (IAM) scenarios, going significantly beyond what is done in our analysis, and requiring major modeling innovation1, specifically to link chemical manufacturing sectors to energy and mitigation technology sectors, to a degree not done in IAMs so far.