Direct air capture: An expensive, dangerous distraction from real climate solutions
Direct air capture: An expensive, dangerous distraction from real climate solutions
Separating carbon dioxide from air, while technically straightforward, is outrageously expensive.
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I get that $500/t seems like an absurd price, but honestly that's not wildly out of line with what the cost of emissions likely are
Even if we eliminate ALL emissions, we will also need some degree of DAC in the mix. You don't fix an oil spill by closing the well. You close the well and then cleanup the spill. And if you wait to develop the technology to clean up the spill until after you closed the well, you've fucked up. It's too late.
There's a presumption in this kind of publishing that money spent on DAC necessarily is being pulled from other projects. If that's true, that's a disaster. But these DAC projects ALSO have to happen. They just have to.
$500/t does not account the $1B to build it. I think it's totally reasonable if it is in addition to renewables too. However, carbon capture has always been pushed hard by fossil fuel companies as an alternative to renewables so they can keep business as usual.
You've misinterpreted the article. $500/t is the total LCA per ton captured by the facility.
Oxy estimates that the project will separate 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year and cost about $1 billion to build. Adding in operations and maintenance, we, and others, estimate the total costs will be more than $500 per ton of avoided carbon dioxide.
You're right, thank you.