Life Cycle Assessment of a Direct Air Capture and Storage plant in Ireland

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3145370/v1

Download PDF

Article

Life Cycle Assessment of a Direct Air Capture and Storage plant in Ireland

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3145370/v1

This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License

Journal Publication

published 25 Oct, 2023

Read the published version in Scientific Reports →

You are reading this latest preprint version

Despite the efforts to transition to a low carbon economy, greenhouse gas emissions are rising and reaching critical levels. Carbon Dioxide Removals such as Direct Air Capture (DAC) are gaining the public attention in the last few years. This technology is essential to reduce the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere and meet the climate targets. DAC can be deployed at any place, yet certain studies are necessary as for example, a life cycle assessment (LCA) to prove its viability. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the construction of 1 Mt_CO2 plant in Ireland. The selected storage sites for this study were the gas fields at Kinsale and Corrib. Because of the small area of the island, the results showed that the country is a perfect candidate to scale up this emerging industry. With a reliable source of heat and electricity, the efficiency was only influenced by the construction of the pipeline section. The effect of the distances to the storage sites were significant in the present analysis. Counties near the gas fields are in an advantageous situation over other regions. During this study, we concluded Ireland has the potential to start its own DAC industry.

Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences

Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate change mitigation

Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate change policy

Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Environmental impact

Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Sustainability

Direct Air Capture

Climate change

Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon Dioxide Removal

Ireland

Although numerous countries set ambitious targets and plans to fight climate change, the world is on track to exceed 2°C (Diffenbaugh & Barnes, 2023). Global Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) rebounded after 2020, reaching 52.8 Gt_CO2e (Anne et al., 2022). The over-dependence on fossil fuels is affecting our society (Marina et al., 2022). Low carbon emitting technologies (LCET) are expected to be a bridge towards a net-zero economy (World Economic Forum, 2022). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDRs) such as Direct Air Capture (DAC) are critical to address climate change: by 2050 it will be necessary to remove 6 Gt_CO2 per year (Shukla et al., 2022).

Over the last two decades, researchers investigated adsorption and absorption processes to remove the CO₂ from the atmosphere ((Casaban & Tsalaporta, 2023)). In adsorption processes, the ambient air pass through a solid with a great affinity to retain the CO₂ whereas in absorption is used an aqueous solution (Casaban et al., 2022)One of the strong points of absorption compared to adsorption is the ability to operate under continuous activity (Keith et al., 2018). Yet, the major advantage of adsorption over absorption is that this technique requires less water and energy to for performing the process (Casaban et al., 2022). These methods have been demonstrated feasible and companies had and are currently building the first industrial plants (Climeworks, 2021; Matt McGrath, 2021).

In order to complete the process and reverse the worse effects of climate change, large part of the CO₂ should be store it (IEA, 2007). Depleted oil and gas fields are one of the best solutions for storing the captured CO₂ (Hannis et al., 2017). Lessons from these experiences demonstrated the viability of this method (IEAGHG, 2023). Deep saline aquifers was another geological formation explored to store the CO₂ collected (Celia et al., 2015). These storage places are estimated to have large storage capacities than oil and gas reservoirs (IPCC, 2005). The storage capacity of these geological formations depends on the characteristics of the aquifer as well as the storage operation (Bachu, 2015).

In a structural storage, the CO₂ is pumped underground; because CO₂ is lighter than water, the gas will go up through the porous rock until reaches the top of the geological formation, where it will remain trapped and sealed (Iglauer, 2018). In the saline aquifers, the CO₂ is stored by a process called saline trapping. Rocks act like a sponge where the CO₂ injected remains stuck between the pore spaces (Joodaki et al., 2020). The CO₂ can be dissolved into salty water to increase its density and sink to the bottom of the rock formation, trapping the CO₂ permanently (Irfan et al., 2018). Further, the CO₂ dissolved in salt water is less acidic, and can react with minerals from the adjacent rocks and form new minerals (Gadikota, 2021). Multiple projects and experiments at this moment are storing CO₂ in basalt rocks in Iceland (Matter et al., 2011). Other studies suggested transforming the CO₂ into cement by mineral carbonation in Ca⁻ and Mg⁻ rich materials (Winnefeld et al., 2022).

Thus, DAC industry is expected to grow its capacity during this decade. As stated above, the primary goal of this emerging industry is to store permanently the CO₂ abated. However, there are areas that will keep polluting in the coming years. Part of the CO₂ captured can compensate the emissions from sectors such as the agricultural or transformed into alternative fuels for the aviation or chemical industry (Casaban & Tsalaporta, 2022). Both solutions from this LCET require of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in order to know the environmental effects from all the stages of the process (Daggash et al., 2018; van Leeuwen & Mulder, 2018).

Climeworks is expected to open a new plant in Iceland (Climeworks, 2022b). The company took advantage of the geothermal energy to capture the CO₂. In their LCA study, they demonstrated carbon dioxide removal efficiencies of 90% (Deutz & Bardow, 2021). One of the primary advantages of DAC is that can be placed in any place (IEA, 2022a). However, during the construction and operation, there are several factors that affect the performance of the process. As Terlouw et al. stressed, the transport and storage of CO₂ can negatively affect to the environment (Terlouw, Bauer, et al., 2021). The infrastructure required to transport the gas, the drilling and injection operations, and the possible CO₂ leakages, can increase the energy demand on account of a higher carbon footprint (Volkart et al., 2013).

From this perspective, this LCA study aims to explore different locations for a future DAC plant in Ireland. The country has two potential storage sites that will help to understand the environmental impacts and the energy needs of the capture and storage processes (Casaban & Tsalaporta, 2022). The LCA from Climeworks demonstrated the necessity of a low carbon source to power the plant (Climeworks, 2022c). Ireland does not have geothermal energy; however, the country has consistent wind speeds with the potential to generate enough energy to exceed the domestic demand (SEAI, 2011).

During this study, it was used SimaPro software, for accounting the materials, energy needs, and environmental impacts during the construction and operation of a DAC plant in Ireland. The DAC process used for this study is based on the Climeworks plant: Temperature-Vacuum Swing Adsorption. This analysis is difficult to perform because of the data confidentiality from this emerging technology. Yet, we followed the methodology and guidance from Terlouw to expose our case (Terlouw, Treyer, et al., 2021). The authors made assumptions to approximate the impacts from the construction of the DAC plant: CO₂ collectors, process unit, steel tanks and a maintenance hall, for control the process.

Collector boxes are made of plastic, steel, insulation, and fan, which is remarkably similar to the LCI of a passenger vehicle (Van Der Giesen et al., 2017). Thus, we used their approximation, and a 1200 kg compact size petrol/natural gas car was selected as a proxy for the collectors. As stated by Climeworks, 80 collector boxes can capture 4 ktCO2 per year in the plant at Iceland (Climeworks, 2021). The width, height and length of each collector is 2 meters (Climeworks, 2022c). Therefore, the total volume of the collector boxes is 640 m³, with a density of 110 kg/m³.

As well as the collectors, a passenger vehicle is used as an approximation for the process unit. A DAC unit comprises two containers (each container has 9 collector boxes), with a length of 12 meters and a width and height of 2 meters. The total volume of the process unit is estimated to be 50 m³. ORCA’s DAC plant needs 9 process units with a volume of 450 m³ to capture 4 kt_CO2 per year (Climeworks, 2021). Moreover, it is necessary one steel tank with a diameter, height, and thickness of 2 meters, 6 meters and 0.02 meters correspondingly per 18 collector boxes.

For the foundations of the plant, it is required to transform the grassland into an industrial area and cover it with concrete (Viebahn et al., 2019). As stated by Climeworks, 90 m² are needed for the DAC plant at Hinwil (Climeworks, 2022a). Terlouw et al., linearly scale the land use for the ORCA plant and for the future 100 kt plant (Terlouw, Treyer, et al., 2021). They concluded that a concrete layer of 400 m² and 5000 m² with a thickness of 1 meter is necessary for the 4 kt_co2 and 100 kt_co2 plants -Figure 1-. Then, the concrete should be reinforced with 120 kg steel/ m³ (Deutz & Bardow, 2021).

The dimensions of the maintenance hall are unclear (Viebahn et al., 2019). Yet, Terlouw et al. estimated that the building should occupy 75% of the total surface area. All these figures were compared with the data from Climeworks and Terlouw and further scaled for our megaton-capacity plant.

As with many other industrial processes, the operation of a DAC plant will be affected by the energy source. In order to evaluate the climate change impacts, we utilised the EF 3.0 Method, which includes the Global Warming Potential to 100 years (GWP100) as an indicative factor (European Commission, 2013). This study aims to address the kg of CO₂ emitted per ton of CO₂ removed during the construction, operation, and storage of the process. We proposed different three thresholds to address the efficiency of the process: 25%, 50% and 75%.

Near Ireland, there are potential geological storage locations for CO₂ with a quantified capacity to store 93,115 MtCO₂, from which 1,505 MtCO₂ are practical (Lewis et al., 2009; SEAI, 2008). This study considered the depleted gas field at Kinsale, which was used as gas storage in the past years (Gas networks Ireland, 2020). This is a suitable place for storing the CO₂ from DAC in the near term. Moreover, Corrib gas field will soon be exhausted in the coming years, which is a problem for the national energy security but a window of opportunity in the future to boost DAC industry (Casaban & Tsalaporta, 2022; Department of Environment, 2022). The risk for storage of the CO₂ have been widely discussed before (Jonathan O’Callaghan, 2018). In 2026, Scotland is going to open the first DAC plant with a megaton capacity (Matt McGrath, 2021). Although the plant is based on an absorption process, it is not unreasonable to think that solid sorbent DAC plants will reach this capacity in the near future. Thus, we set that our plant has a capacity to remove 1 Mt_CO2 per year. Different locations and distances were studied for a future plant: Kinsale, Tipperary Wexford, Dublin, Castlebar, Donegal.

Table 1

Characteristics from some of the practical and effective storage basin locations in Ireland
Site name	Location	Storage type	Status	Storage capacity (Mt_CO2)	Reservoir type	Reservoir depth (m)
Kinsale	Celtic Sea Basin	Gas field	Depleted	350	Triassic sandstone	800
Spanish Point	Porcupine Basin	Gas field	Depleted	120	Jurassic Voligian Sandstones	-
Corrib	Northwest Basin	Gas field	Operational	6950	Lower Cretaceous sandstone	2000
Ormskirk Formation	Irish Sea Basin	Aquifer	-	630	Triassic sandstone	900
East Irish Sea	Irish Sea Basin	Oil & Gas field	Depleted	1050	Triassic sandstone	900
Kish Bank	Irish Sea Basin	Aquifer	-	267	Sherwood Sandstone	1750
Lough Neagh	Northern Ireland	Aquifer	-	1940	Sherwood Sandstone	1300

According to Climeworks, their plant requires of 500 kWh of electricity and 1500 kWh of heat to operate (Climeworks, 2022a). However, recent studies suggested that in the near future, the improvement of the process will reduce the energy needs to 444 kWh of electricity and 1333 kWh of heat per ton of CO₂ captured -Figure 2- (Hanna et al., 2021). In order to meet the heat demands, we assumed that the energy needed for the process can come from the chemical industry or waste incineration plants, as for example, the one at Dublin (Elsam, 2006). In 2020, 3.2 million tonnes of municipal waste were generated and 41% were transformed into energy (EPA, 2023). With reliable access to a source of waste heat, the emissions and the environmental impacts will be markedly reduced (Fasihi et al., 2016). Energy from a natural gas plant and wind energy wind plant have been used as proxies for setting the three different scenarios. These scenarios are based on the future development plans of the island (National Development Plan 2021–2030, 2021).

Scenario 1: 55% of the energy comes from fossil origin and 45% from renewable.
Scenario 2: 30% of the energy comes from fossil origin and 70% from renewable.
Scenario 3: 5% of the energy comes from fossil origin and 95% from renewable.

Climeworks currently have an operation plant at Switzerland with a capacity to capture 4 kt of CO₂ per year (Climeworks, 2021). Following the procedure by Terlouw et al., we verified the LCI for a 4 kt plant, and further scale it to our megaton plant. Future installations will not need enormous amounts of materials and land use due to advances in the field: better techniques or new sorbents (Sanz-Pérez et al., 2016).

According to Hendriks et al. (Chris & Wina, 2004), there is a method to estimate the energy needs for the injection step. To transport the CO₂, the gas should be compressed from 1 bar to 110 bar in a four-step centrifugal compression (Musardo et al., 2013). If the capacity of the plant is of about 1 Mt_CO2 per year with a Flh value of 8160, the mass flow of the process is 34 kg_CO2/s or 122.4 t_CO2/h. All of these parameters are considered in Eq. 1, where Ce is a constant with a value of 87.85 kj/kg.

\(E={C}_{el}*ln\left(\frac{{P}_{outlet}}{{P}_{inlet}}\right)*F\)

Equation 1

The results showed that 115 kWh of energy are required for the combined compression stages. Furthermore, an additional input of 12 kWh are necessary to inject the CO₂ to at least 2000 meters underground. Therefore, the total input of energy from the transport and storage process is around 130 kWh per ton of CO₂ removed. This energy will be met depending on the different sources of energy according to the established scenarios.

As well as Terlouw (Terlouw, Treyer, et al., 2021), we considered the fugitive emissions of CO₂ during its transport inside of the pipelines (medium baseline). Holloway et al. developed a method to estimate the loss of CO₂ during its transmission (Holloway et al., 2006). According to the authors, the CO₂ emissions rate is 1.66 times the CH₄-emission rate. Thus, this rate should be multiplied by the yearly distribution emission factor of CH₄ (Carras Pamela M Franklin et al., 2006). By applying this method, we estimated the losses of CO₂ for the different DAC plants on the island (Table 2). The maximum depth of Kinsale gas field is 1000 meters whereas Corrib can reach 3000 meters (Table 1). Storage depth around 2000 meters do not affect to the LCA (Institut & Volkart, 2013). Therefore, the CO₂ leakage from the injection wells is insignificant at Kinsale (Kelemen et al., 2019).

Table 2

Leakage emissions from transporting CO₂ to Kinsale and Corrib via pipeline.
DAC plant	Distance to Kinsale	Distance to Corrib	Leakage to Kinsale	Leakage to Corrib
DAC plant	gas field (km)	gas field (km)	gas field (kg_CO2)	gas field (kg_CO2)
Castlebar	316	128	45	18.23
Donegal	393	195	55.96	27.77
Dublin	260	323	37.02	46
Kinsale	74	336	10.54	47.85
Tipperary	150	281	21.36	40.01
Wexford	171	377	24.35	53.69

The results displayed demonstrated the feasibility of a DAC plant in the country. Solid sorbent processes do not require large amounts of energy. At the moment, DAC capacity from this method can capture a maximum of 36 kt_CO2 per year (Climeworks, 2022b). Yet, there is significant progress in two years where the ability to capture CO₂ only reached 4 kt_CO2 per year (Climeworks, 2021). In the next decade, these plants will achieve the megaton capacity (Matt McGrath, 2021). Right now, the only DAC plants constructed are in advantageous locations, where the majority of the energy used comes from renewable sources and the storage location is not far from the capture point. Ireland is moving to low carbon sources of energy, and the country expect to meet 70% of its demand by renewable sources. In the last week, the first major auction to implement offshore wind power was successful (Shortt, R. 2023). This great news will help to tackle the emissions from the power sector. Yet, renewable energy has certain restrictions in specific areas and certain emissions that are difficult to reduce must be addressed through CDR and carbon capture methods.

In Spain, there are days where the renewable energy cannot meet the demands or exceeds the expectations. Depending on the generation hours, renewables can generate even the 100% of the energy demand (REE, 2023). However, gas and nuclear generation should remain constant as a backup system (REE, 2023). This is due to many of the electricity generated cannot be stored at this moment (Roca, 2023). In the future, batteries and energy vectors as for example hydrogen or e-fuels, will store the surplus of renewable energy (Nemmour et al., 2023). However, there will exist some residual emissions that will be necessary to address (IPCC, 2023). DAC can take advantage of this surplus of energy and help these areas that are hard-to-decarbonise (IEA, 2022b). This technology is not a silver bullet but will play a key role in the energy transition together with carbon capture, heat pumps (IPCC, 2022). Therefore, it is necessary to implement scale plants in order to study its performance and viability.

The environmental impacts to capture one ton of CO₂ are divided in 17 categories (European Commission, 2013). In every scenario and for both study cases, the emissions do not surpass the half ton of CO₂ emitted per ton captured Fig. 3. The construction of the plant has a minimum impact during the lifetime of the process. All the scenarios revealed the influence from the electricity source for the operation of the megaton plant. It is projected that in the long-term, as the wind is providing most of the energy needs, the efficiency of the process can reach 87–89% for plants close to the Corrib and Kinsale gas fields. Nevertheless, it was revealed that the consequences on the environment from the assembly of the pipeline section had to be taken into account for the future site of the plant. Energy needs for the operation of the plant and transport of the CO₂ were presupposed by the future development plans (National Development Plan 2021–2030, 2021). However, emissions from electricity generation can vary depending on the source. We assumed that the renewable energy provided has wind origin whereas the non-renewable came from gas plants from the island. This scenario was hypothesised due to the only coal plant of the country is expected to close in the near future (Barry O’Halloran, 2022). If Moneypoint coal plant keeps operating after 2030, the CO₂ emissions from the electricity needs will rise and therefore, its and environmental impacts.

Incorporating the heat from waste plants aided in lessening the carbon footprint, yet these emissions were included in the analysis to measure the effects on the global process. If waste heat cannot be supplied by this method, the emissions during the performance can scale-down the efficiency of the capture (Terlouw, Treyer, et al., 2021). In locations where waste heat is not available, a heat pump can be considered (Deutz & Bardow, 2021). A coefficient of performance of 2.51 is enough to supply the necessities of the plant and it is in range of heat pumps installed in the market (David et al., 2017). Thus, it is vital to study which adjacent industries can provide a rich source of waste heat for the operation.

The associated emissions for the construction of the pipeline section increase in line with the distance to the storage point. Additionally, the energy requirements for the compression and delivery of the CO₂ will also increase, making it necessary to have an extra compression step for distances greater than 200 km. For both cases of study in scenario 1, the storage and transport process can reduce a 25% the carbon removal efficiency. This effect can be visualised in Fig. 3, showing the importance of the emissions from the construction of the piping system. As a consequence of the transport step, we segmented the construction site into three diverse areas according to the carbon footprint of the storage and transport procedure (Fig. 4). This study also had a limitation in that it was assumed that CO₂ would travel along a straight pipe section from the plant to the storage point. Nevertheless, by taking advantage of the current infrastructure, it is possible to reduce emissions and make it viable for other locations.

The elevated temperatures and pressures at the depths of the reservoirs changes the characteristics of the CO₂, allowing to storage a major number of volume. At 800 meters of depth, the CO₂ reaches the critical point where its temperature and pressure excess the 31 ºC and 73 atm lifetime, respectively. There, the volume of the gas becomes the 0.32 part of the surface. With the ideal conditions to scale a DAC plant in the country, a simple megaton DAC plant can store 48.54 million of m³ during its lifetime. Therefore, it will be necessary 17 plants of 1 Mt_CO2 capacity to fill the Kinsale reservoir with 350 Mt_CO2. If we consider the natural carbon sinks, the accumulated emissions from 1990 to 2023 from Ireland are almost 500 Mt_CO2e (Casaban & Tsalaporta, 2022). Regardless of the progress in the field or the expected future gigaton plants, this approach shows how DAC can help to abate half of the historic emissions. As aforementioned, DAC is still in its infancy, yet there are many similarities with the renewable sector in the 90s (Smith et al., 2023). To achieve the desired carbon dioxide removal levels, investigating materials and methods that can be used in atmospheric conditions is essential (Casaban & Tsalaporta, 2023). The presence of moisture in the air can make the process less efficient and increase the electricity demand due to the use of a dehumidification step.

Nonetheless, the results of this study showed that Ireland is a perfect candidate for deploying a DAC plant. Taking advantage of the wind in the near future and a reliable source of heat from waste will reduce the energy costs of the plant. Yet, this is the ideal context and there are a few areas in the country where the construction of a plant will meet the conditions. Even if the land extension of the island is small, and a DAC plant can be deployed in many parts of the country; our analysis revealed that the impact of the storage process was the most important aspect to consider. Counties close to Kinsale and Corrib gas fields are in a unique position, as they do not need the same infrastructure to transport the CO₂ as other areas. This could be advantageous, as it could stimulate the local economy. However, there are alternatives for the mid regions of the country.

Deploy a DAC in plant in midlands counties will not be feasible for storing the CO₂ in Kinsale or Corrib. Yet plants can be constructed in regions like Limerick or Dublin. Despite these counties are far from the local storage point, they have a harbour. Consequently, the CO₂ can be delivered to regional nearby reservoirs, such as the East Irish Sea or the North Sea through shipping, which is the biggest storage point in Europe (European Commission, 2019). This could make these locations more feasible due to the construction of a pipeline infrastructure will not be a requisite (EPA, 2008) and therefore, reduce the associated emissions.

			Kinsale storage		Corrib storage
			Scenario 1	Scenario 3	Scenario 1	Scenario 3
	Environmental impact	Unit	Donegal	Kinsale	Kinsale	Castlebar
	Climate change	kg_CO2eq	3.43E + 02	1.09E + 02	3.19E + 02	1.57E + 02
Ozone	Ozone depletion	kg_{CFC11 eq}	4.51E-05	2.41E-05	4.29E-05	2.86E-05
Ozone	Photochemical ozone formation	kg_NMVOCeq	1.43E + 00	4.79E-01	1.27E + 00	8.07E-01
Human health damage	Particulate matter	disease incidence	2.82E-05	9.82E-06	2.48E-05	1.66E-05
	Non-cancer	CTU_h	5.02E-06	2.13E-06	4.47E-06	3.25E-06
	Ionising radiation	kBq_U−235eq	3.79E + 01	2.23E + 01	3.66E + 01	2.49E + 01
	Cancer	CTU_h	8.23E-07	2.74E-07	7.19E-07	4.85E-07
	Acidification	mol_H+eq	1.43E + 00	6.08E-01	1.29E + 00	9.00E-01
Eutrophication	Freshwater	kg_Peq	7.18E-02	3.45E-02	6.47E-02	4.87E-02
	Marine	kg_Neq	4.48E-01	1.52E-01	3.98E-01	2.53E-01
	Terrestrial	mol_Neq	4.76E + 00	1.61E + 00	4.23E + 00	2.68E + 00
Ecotoxicity	Freshwater	CTU_e	4.90E + 03	2.26E + 03	4.40E + 03	3.26E + 03
Resource use	Land use	Pt	1.44E + 03	1.17E + 03	1.39E + 03	1.27E + 03
	Water use	m³	8.56E + 01	3.04E + 01	7.82E + 01	4.51E + 01
	Fossils	MJ	8.41E + 03	5.09E + 03	8.15E + 03	5.58E + 03
	Minerals & metals	kg_Sbeq	2.24E-03	1.32E-03	2.03E-03	1.74E-03

Ireland is in an advantageous location to not only be the pioneers in renewable energy, but also to be a vital part in the CDR and carbon capture industries. Renewables are expected to expand during this decade, yet CDR and carbon capture are lagging. No technology is a panacea for solving the climate crisis, and renewable energy is facing challenges such as transmission or storage of energy. On the other hand, it is also necessary to scale down the costs per ton of CO₂ capture from certain CDR and carbon capture methods. CDRs such as DAC should not replace emissions reductions and CDRs should neutralise any residual emissions. In combination with other climate policies, these technologies will fulfil their respective roles. The good news is that in the last years, the tide is turning. Renewable energy is booming, and CDR and carbon capture technologies are gaining more acknowledgement and new initiatives are appearing. New DAC plants and planned projects are on the road for this decade and their results will help to clarify the doubts from this important technology. Therefore, the availability of data was an important limiting factor during our analysis and our LCA was based on previous studies.

In order to reduce the carbon footprint of the operation, we considered that the megaton DAC plant will be powered with waste heat and renewable energy. During this study, we only explored the use of the depleted gas field of Kinsale and the future depleted gas field at Corrib. According to every scenario and due to its proximity to the storage location, Castlebar and Kinsale are excellent places to build a DAC plant. Most of the emissions from the process are related with the transport and storage of the CO₂ from the capture to the storage point. Yet, DAC can be constructed in other locations across the country.

Utilising the existing network for transporting gas, counties such as Waterford can take advantage and establish a DAC industry. Near of Dublin, in the Irish Sea, the Kish Bank Basin and East Irish Basin have a capacity to store 1050 Mt_CO2e. Lough Neagh Basin is a saline aquifer with a capacity to store 1940 Mt_CO2e. Counties such as Donegal can take advantage of the potential of the onshore Northwest Carboniferous Basin, which is estimated to store 730 Mt_CO2e. Exploration operations must be conducted in other un-quantified locations, such as Clare Basin in Limerick. Moreover, part of the CO₂ can be used to store the excess of renewable energy by transforming it into e-fuels for the aviation and shipping industry. These approaches can significantly reduce the emissions from the storage and transport. However, its energy costs are expected to increase due to the use of an electrolyser or a liquified plant. Future studies will investigate this perspective in order to know its viability.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Anne, O., John, C., & Simon, M. (2022). The Closing Window Climate crisis calls for rapid transformation of societies. https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2022
Bachu, S. (2015). Review of CO2 storage efficiency in deep saline aquifers. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 40, 188–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.01.007
Barry O’Halloran. (2022). State in talks with EU on keeping coal and oil generators open past closing dates.
Carras Pamela M Franklin, J. N., Hu, Y., Singh, A. K., Tailakov, O. V, Picard Azhari M Ahmed, D. F., Gjerald, E., Nordrum, S., & Yesserkepova, I. (2006). Fugitive Emissions (Vol. 2).
Casaban, D., Ritchie, S., & Tsalaporta, E. (2022). The impact of Direct Air Capture during the last two decades: A bibliometric analysis of the scientific research, part I. Sustainable Chemistry for Climate Action, 1, 100009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scca.2022.100009
Casaban, D., & Tsalaporta, E. (2022). Direct air capture of CO 2 in the Republic of Ireland. Is it necessary? Energy Reports, 8, 10449–10463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.08.194
Casaban, D., & Tsalaporta, E. (2023). The impact of direct air capture during the last two decades: A bibliometric analysis of the scientific research Part II. Sustainable Chemistry for Climate Action, 2, 100021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scca.2023.100021
Celia, M. A., Bachu, S., Nordbotten, J. M., & Bandilla, K. W. (2015). Status of CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers with emphasis on modeling approaches and practical simulations. In Water Resources Research (Vol. 51, Issue 9, pp. 6846–6892). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017609
Chris, H., & Wina, G. (2004). Global Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential and Costs.
Climeworks. (2021). Orca: the first large-scale plant. https://climeworks.com/roadmap/orca
Climeworks. (2022a). Climeworks. https://climeworks.com/roadmap/orca
Climeworks. (2022b, June 28). Climeworks takes another major step on its road to building gigaton DAC capacity. https://climeworks.com/news/climeworks-announces-groundbreaking-on-mammoth
Climeworks. (2022c, September 5). Catalyzing Swiss innovation: PwC Switzerland signs 9-year carbon removal contract with Climeworks. https://climeworks.com/news/pwc-switzerland-signs-cdr-agreement
Daggash, H. A., Patzschke, C. F., Heuberger, C. F., Zhu, L., Hellgardt, K., Fennell, P. S., Bhave, A. N., Bardow, A., & MacDowell, N. (2018). Closing the carbon cycle to maximise climate change mitigation: Power-to-methanol: vs. power-to-direct air capture. Sustainable Energy and Fuels, 2(6), 1153–1169. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8se00061a
David, A., Mathiesen, B. V., Averfalk, H., Werner, S., & Lund, H. (2017). Heat Roadmap Europe: Large-scale electric heat pumps in district heating systems. Energies, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/en10040578
Department of Environment, C. and C. (2022). Review of the Security of Energy Supply of Ireland’s Electricity and Natural Gas Systems Consultation. www.decc.gov.ie
Deutz, S., & Bardow, A. (2021). Life cycle assessment of an industrial direct air capture 1 process based on temperature-vacuum swing adsorption.
Diffenbaugh, N. S., & Barnes, E. A. (2023). Data-driven predictions of the time remaining until critical global warming thresholds are reached. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(6). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2207183120
Elsam. (2006). Dublin, Waste to Energy Project. www.DUBLINWASTETOENERGY.IE
EPA. (2008). Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO 2 for the Island of Ireland.
EPA. (2023). National Waste Statistics . https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/waste/national-waste-statistics/
European Commission. (2013). On the use of common methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations.
European Commission. (2019). CO2 Storage Safety in the North Sea: Implications of the CO2 Storage Directive TWG Collaboration across the CCS Chain Workstream 1 Report.
Fasihi, M., Bogdanov, D., & Breyer, C. (2016). Techno-Economic Assessment of Power-to-Liquids (PtL) Fuels Production and Global Trading Based on Hybrid PV-Wind Power Plants. Energy Procedia, 99(March), 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.10.115
Gadikota, G. (2021). Carbon mineralization pathways for carbon capture, storage and utilization. In Communications Chemistry (Vol. 4, Issue 1). Nature Research. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-021-00461-x
Gas networks Ireland. (2020). Gas Networks Ireland acknowledges key role of Kinsale gas fields. https://www.gasnetworks.ie/corporate/news/active-news-articles/gni-acknowledges-kinsale-gas-fields/
Hanna, R., Abdulla, A., Xu, Y., & Victor, D. G. (2021). Emergency deployment of direct air capture as a response to the climate crisis. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20437-0
Hannis, S., Lu, J., Chadwick, A., Hovorka, S., Kirk, K., Romanak, K., & Pearce, J. (2017). CO2 Storage in Depleted or Depleting Oil and Gas Fields: What can We Learn from Existing Projects? Energy Procedia, 114, 5680–5690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1707
Holloway, S., Karimjee, A., Akai, M., Pipatti, R., & Rypdal, K. (2006). Carbon Dioxide Transport, Injection and Geological Storage (Vol. 2).
IEA. (2007). Storing CO 2 Underground.
IEA. (2022a). Direct Air Capture. https://www.iea.org/reports/direct-air-capture
IEA. (2022b, September). Renewable electricity. https://www.iea.org/reports/renewable-electricity
IEAGHG. (2023). Case studies of CO2 storage in depleted oil and gas fields 2005 - 2023. http://www.ieaghg.org/publications/technical-reports
Iglauer, S. (2018). Optimum storage depths for structural CO2 trapping. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 77, 82–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2018.07.009
Institut, P. S., & Volkart, K. (2013). Carbon Capture and Storage-A future option for Switzerland?
IPCC. (2005). Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage.
IPCC. (2023). Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Summary for Policymakers 4.
Irfan, M. F., Bisson, T. M., Bobicki, E., Arguelles-Vivas, F., Xu, Z., Liu, Q., & Babadagli, T. (2018). CO2 storage in saline aquifers by dissolution and residual trapping under supercritical conditions: An experimental investigation. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 548, 37–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2018.03.062
Jonathan O’Callaghan. (2018). Storing CO2 underground can curb carbon emissions, but is it safe?
Joodaki, S., Yang, Z., Bensabat, J., & Niemi, A. (2020). Model analysis of CO2 residual trapping from single-well push pull test based on hydraulic withdrawal tests – Heletz, residual trapping experiment I. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103058
Keith, D. W., Holmes, G., St. Angelo, D., & Heidel, K. (2018). A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere. Joule, 2(8), 1573–1594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2018.05.006
Kelemen, P., Benson, S. M., Pilorgé, H., Psarras, P., & Wilcox, J. (2019). An Overview of the Status and Challenges of CO2 Storage in Minerals and Geological Formations. In Frontiers in Climate (Vol. 1). Frontiers Media S.A. https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2019.00009
Lewis, D., Bentham, M., Cleary, T., Vernon, R., O’Neill, N., Kirk, K., Chadwick, A., Hilditch, D., Michael, K., Allinson, G., Neal, P., & Ho, M. (2009). Assessment of the potential for geological storage of carbon dioxide in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Energy Procedia, 1(1), 2655–2662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2009.02.033
Marina, R., Claudia, D. N., Paul, D., Carole, G., Harry, K., Pete, L., Daniel, S., Nigel, A., Sonja, A.-K., Lea, B. F., Kristine, B., Kathryn, B., Wenjia, C., Max, C., Diarmid, C.-L., Jonathan, C., Kim, R. van D., Carole, D., Niheer, D., … Anthony, C. (2022). The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels. In The Lancet (Vol. 400, Issue 10363, pp. 1619–1654). Elsevier B.V. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01540-9
Matt McGrath. (2021). Climate change: Large-scale CO2 removal facility set for Scotland. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57588248
Matter, J. M., Broecker, W. S., Gislason, S. R., Gunnlaugsson, E., Oelkers, E. H., Stute, M., Sigurdardóttir, H., Stefansson, A., Alfreõsson, H. A., Aradóttir, E. S., Axelssone, G., Sigfússon, B., & Wolff-Boenisch, D. (2011). The CarbFix Pilot Project - Storing carbon dioxide in basalt. Energy Procedia, 4, 5579–5585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.546
Musardo, A., Patel, V., Giovani, G., Pelella, M., Weatherwax, M., & Cipriani, S. (2013). CO2 Compression at World’s Largest Carbon Dioxide Injection Project.
National Development Plan 2021-2030. (2021).
Nemmour, A., Inayat, A., Janajreh, I., & Ghenai, C. (2023, March 11). Green hydrogen-based E-fuels (E-methane, E- methanol, E-ammonia) to support clean energy transition: A literature review. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.03.240
REE. (2023). Red Electrica Española. https://www.ree.es/es
Roca, R. (2023). El increíble mordisco que la fotovoltaica pegó a la eólica: REE tuvo que apagar 5 GW de aerogeneradores en uno de los mayores ‘curtailment’ que se hayan producido en España. El Periódico De La Energía. https://elperiodicodelaenergia.com/el-increible-mordisco-que-la-fotovoltaica-pego-a-la-eolica-ree-tuvo-que-apagar-5-gw-de-aerogeneradores-en-uno-de-los-mayores-curtailment-que-se-hayan-producido-en-espana/
Sanz-Pérez, E. S., Murdock, C. R., Didas, S. A., & Jones, C. W. (2016). Direct Capture of CO2 from Ambient Air. Chemical Reviews, 116(19), 11840–11876. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00173
SEAI. (2008). Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO 2 for the Island of Ireland.
SEAI. (2011). Introduction to the Wind Energy Roadmap to 2050.
Shortt, R. (2023, May 15). “Wind of Change” for Ireland but challenges remain. RTE.
Shukla, R., Skea, J., Slade, R., Al Khourdajie, A., van Diemen, R., McCollum, D., Pathak, M., Some, S., Vyas, P., Fradera, R., Belkacemi, M., Hasija, A., Lisboa, G., Luz, S., & Malley, J. (2022). Summary for Policymakers SPM 3 Summary for Policymakers to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926.001
Smith, Geden, Nemet, Gidden, Lamb, & al. (2023). The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal - 1st Edition. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/W3B4Z
Terlouw, T., Bauer, C., Rosa, L., & Mazzotti, M. (2021). Life cycle assessment of carbon dioxide removal technologies: A critical review. Energy and Environmental Science, 14(4), 1701–1721. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ee03757e
Terlouw, T., Treyer, K., Bauer, C., & Mazzotti, M. (2021). Life Cycle Assessment of Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage with Low-Carbon Energy Sources. Environmental Science and Technology, 55(16), 11397–11411. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c03263
Coen Van Der Giesen, C., Meinrenken, C. J., Kleijn, R., Sprecher, B., Lackner, K. S., & Kramer, G. J. (2017). Generation with humidity swing direct air capture of CO2 versus mea-based postcombustion capture. Environmental Science and Technology, 51(2), 1024–1034. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b05028
Van Leeuwen, C., & Mulder, M. (2018). Power-to-gas in electricity markets dominated by renewables. Applied Energy, 232(September), 258–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.09.217
Viebahn, P., Scholz, A., & Zelt, O. (2019). The potential role of direct air capture in the German energy research program—results of a multi-dimensional analysis. Energies, 12(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/en12183443
Volkart, K., Bauer, C., & Boulet, C. (2013). Life cycle assessment of carbon capture and storage in power generation and industry in Europe. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 16, 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.03.003
Winnefeld, F., Leemann, A., German, A., & Lothenbach, B. (2022). CO2 storage in cement and concrete by mineral carbonation. In Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry (Vol. 38). Elsevier B.V. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2022.100672
World Economic Forum. (2022). Towards a Net-Zero Chemical Industry: A Global Policy Landscape for Low-Carbon Emitting Technologies.

No competing interests reported.

Download PDF

Journal Publication

published 25 Oct, 2023

Read the published version in Scientific Reports →

Editorial decision: Major revision
08 Sep, 2023
Reviews received at journal
16 Aug, 2023
Reviews received at journal
09 Aug, 2023
Reviewers agreed at journal
17 Jul, 2023
Reviewers invited by journal
17 Jul, 2023
Editor assigned by journal
11 Jul, 2023
Editor invited by journal
11 Jul, 2023
Submission checks completed at journal
11 Jul, 2023
First submitted to journal
06 Jul, 2023

You are reading this latest preprint version

Life Cycle Assessment of a Direct Air Capture and Storage plant in Ireland

Status:

Journal Publication

Version 1

Abstract

Figures

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results and discussion

4. Conclusions

Declarations

Data availability

References

Additional Declarations

Status:

Journal Publication

Version 1