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Significant technological advancements are still required to make direct air capture work at scale.

Significant technological advancements are still required to make direct air capture (DAC) work at scale. Currently, DAC faces several challenges, including high energy consumption, substantial costs, and the need for efficient CO2 capture and storage technologies. To achieve large-scale deployment, innovations are needed to improve the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of DAC systems. DAC systems are also far too expensive for widespread deployment, with costs stuck around $1000 per ton of CO2 captured.1 Additionally, DAC systems will require significant new infrastructure investments to transport, store, and utilize captured CO2.2 Overcoming these technical and logistical barriers is essential for DAC to become a viable solution for reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations on a global scale.

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Footnotes​

  1. Aeschlimann, Silvan, Charithea Charalambous, and Daniel Pike. Reality check: This Decade is make-or-break for Direct Air Capture, October 17, 2023. https://rmi.org/make-or-break-for-direct-air-capture/#:~:text=As%20a%20pathway%20to%20remove,polluters%20to%20continue%20to%20emit. ↩

  2. Ibid. ↩