Searching the various investment programs one can find quite interesting
information. (For the reader convenience we report the rate of change of currencies
as for December 2020: 1 CAD$ = 0.74 US$; 1 EUR = 1.22 US$; 1 £ = 1.34 US$.)
In 2018, the Canadian start-up Carbon Engineering Ltd. claimed that DAC may
be possible for US$100/t CO2 . The process is based on capture by CaO, as reported
above, and this will require heating at 900 °C for CO 2 release from CaCO 3 . The
current price of production by Climeworks is ca. 600 US$/t CO2 with a perspective
cost of 100 US$/t CO2 by the end of the decade. Obviously, such energy-intensive
technology requires that energy is provided by a cheap, available, and high-density
non-fossil-C source. The Climeworks plant in Hinwil, Switzerland, needs 1 800–2
500 kWh of thermal energy and *600 kWh of electricity to capture 1t of CO 2 . One
Climeworks collector can capture 50 t CO2 /y. If one would capture 5% of the total
emission of CO 2 that amounts at 37 100 Mt/y [19], it means that for capturing 1 855
Mt/y of CO 2 , at least 37.1 million collectors would be necessary. Such figures are
impressive. Together with the energy required, the uncertainty on OPEX costs and
environmental effects of waste materials, are on the list of problems to be solved for
an effective use of such technology.
As for today, 10 companies worldwide located mainly in USA, Canada, and
Europe (the majority are start-up and university Spin-off) plus a spin-off of the
European Space Agency operate in this sector with the support of public (mainly in
Europe) and private funding. According to the registered projects and the literature,
some of them have raised substantial money during last few years: Carbon Engineering (Canada) > 80 MCAD$, Global Thermostat (USA) > 70 MUS$, Climeworks (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) > 50 M€, and Sunfire (Germany, EU) 25 M€.
Most of the projects aim at combining CO 2 capture and reduction to fuels (liquid or
gaseous) by reaction with hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using solar
energy. The EU Horizon 2020 Program has funded the SUNtoLIQUID project that
has established at the IMDEA Energy Institute (Madrid, Spain) a demo plant for
making liquid hydrocarbons. Twenty-seven partners participated in The EU Project
STORE&GO and aim at comparing three different technologies for converting
captured CO 2 into methane. Even in this case hydrogen comes from water through
PV electrolysis. Soletair Power funded by VTT-Helsinki (FI) similarly has set a
plant for producing liquid fuels. The Synhelion project in Zurich uses the solar
power concentrators for high-temperature CO 2 and water splitting to produce
syngas and then liquid hydrocarbons by FT.
The Sunfire GmbH in Germany has set a demo plant for high-temperature
electrolysis of CO 2 and water to afford syngas used for making liquid
hydrocarbons.
Recently, DAC has been combined with CCS to assess the potential of CO 2
disposal (CarbFix Project). The Rotterdam Jet Fuels and the Prometheus Fuels
Projects target the production of jet fuels. Synhelion and ENI target the production
of methanol. Silicon Kingdom Holding is developing “Mechanical Trees” based on
the use of sorbents (disks) that uptake CO 2 from dry air (20 min exposure at up to
10 m altitude). Once the sorbent is saturated the disk is lowered and CO 2 collected
6.7 Fixation of CO 2 into Long-Lasting Inorganic Materials
89
information. (For the reader convenience we report the rate of change of currencies
as for December 2020: 1 CAD$ = 0.74 US$; 1 EUR = 1.22 US$; 1 £ = 1.34 US$.)
In 2018, the Canadian start-up Carbon Engineering Ltd. claimed that DAC may
be possible for US$100/t CO2 . The process is based on capture by CaO, as reported
above, and this will require heating at 900 °C for CO 2 release from CaCO 3 . The
current price of production by Climeworks is ca. 600 US$/t CO2 with a perspective
cost of 100 US$/t CO2 by the end of the decade. Obviously, such energy-intensive
technology requires that energy is provided by a cheap, available, and high-density
non-fossil-C source. The Climeworks plant in Hinwil, Switzerland, needs 1 800–2
500 kWh of thermal energy and *600 kWh of electricity to capture 1t of CO 2 . One
Climeworks collector can capture 50 t CO2 /y. If one would capture 5% of the total
emission of CO 2 that amounts at 37 100 Mt/y [19], it means that for capturing 1 855
Mt/y of CO 2 , at least 37.1 million collectors would be necessary. Such figures are
impressive. Together with the energy required, the uncertainty on OPEX costs and
environmental effects of waste materials, are on the list of problems to be solved for
an effective use of such technology.
As for today, 10 companies worldwide located mainly in USA, Canada, and
Europe (the majority are start-up and university Spin-off) plus a spin-off of the
European Space Agency operate in this sector with the support of public (mainly in
Europe) and private funding. According to the registered projects and the literature,
some of them have raised substantial money during last few years: Carbon Engineering (Canada) > 80 MCAD$, Global Thermostat (USA) > 70 MUS$, Climeworks (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) > 50 M€, and Sunfire (Germany, EU) 25 M€.
Most of the projects aim at combining CO 2 capture and reduction to fuels (liquid or
gaseous) by reaction with hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using solar
energy. The EU Horizon 2020 Program has funded the SUNtoLIQUID project that
has established at the IMDEA Energy Institute (Madrid, Spain) a demo plant for
making liquid hydrocarbons. Twenty-seven partners participated in The EU Project
STORE&GO and aim at comparing three different technologies for converting
captured CO 2 into methane. Even in this case hydrogen comes from water through
PV electrolysis. Soletair Power funded by VTT-Helsinki (FI) similarly has set a
plant for producing liquid fuels. The Synhelion project in Zurich uses the solar
power concentrators for high-temperature CO 2 and water splitting to produce
syngas and then liquid hydrocarbons by FT.
The Sunfire GmbH in Germany has set a demo plant for high-temperature
electrolysis of CO 2 and water to afford syngas used for making liquid
hydrocarbons.
Recently, DAC has been combined with CCS to assess the potential of CO 2
disposal (CarbFix Project). The Rotterdam Jet Fuels and the Prometheus Fuels
Projects target the production of jet fuels. Synhelion and ENI target the production
of methanol. Silicon Kingdom Holding is developing “Mechanical Trees” based on
the use of sorbents (disks) that uptake CO 2 from dry air (20 min exposure at up to
10 m altitude). Once the sorbent is saturated the disk is lowered and CO 2 collected
6.7 Fixation of CO 2 into Long-Lasting Inorganic Materials
89