Specialist
Former advisor to Royal Dutch Shell
Agenda
- Technology development in DAC (direct air capture) market
- Project assessment of key industry players such as Carbon Engineering, Global Thermostat and Climeworks
- Economics of carbon capture and cost curve outlook for DAC projects
- Capital requirements and potential government investment incentives for the CCS (carbon capture and storage) industry
Questions
1.
How would a DAC [direct air capture] system work within CCS [carbon capture and storage]?
2.
When did the CCS industry start working on DAC? What companies were making the first efforts to use these solvents or filters to capture CO2 directly?
3.
Are we still in the pilot stage of DAC? How far away do you think we are from full commercial deployment in this industry?
4.
You mentioned there are 19 pilot plants. What is the ideal location for a DAC system? What do you look for when you’re trying to site, whether if you’re doing it on a pilot or commercial scale?
5.
When considering the concentration of CO2 that’s needed to run a DAC project, how dense can these projects work in?
6.
You mentioned some of the pilots capturing 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and the new one doing one million. How much CO2 do you think can be captured in a DAC project, and how would that compare to more traditional methods you’ve worked on? How much CO2 do methods such as steam methane reformers capture?
7.
What are the key pieces of equipment and technology decisions that need to be made for a DAC project?
8.
Where are equipment pieces such as the air contactor or calciner manufactured, and what companies manufacture them? Do they need to be custom-made or are they standard?
9.
You cite Carbon Engineering’s costs for a pilot project that was published in 2016. How big of a facility was that, and how many tonnes of carbon was that contemplated to capture?
10.
What would the cost be for a CCS that didn’t use DAC – and instead used a steam methane reformer or captured flue gas – to capture one million tonnes of carbon per annum?
11.
How do you think future DAC companies will drive the cost of these systems down?
12.
What is the business model for a DAC project once it is operational? You referenced higher-purity CO2 being sold to food and beverage companies, but how do they generate revenue? How important are government incentives in making money once a project is running?
13.
Climeworks launched in Iceland in 2021. Can you give an overview of the project, the decisions that were made to put the project there and the technology behind it?
14.
How do you measure progress on a project such as Climeworks’ in Iceland? Do you expect any issues now that it’s operational? If so, when would you normally see something? How do you know that it’s working properly?
15.
Carbon Clean received another investment from Chevron in February 2022. What can you tell us about the technology the company is using?
16.
What do you think are the pros and cons of partnering with a major oil company such as Chevron for Carbon Clean?
17.
What are the pros and cons of Carbon Engineering and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures’ partnership and what is the system they’re developing?
18.
You mentioned the government and potentially higher incentives for DAC. What governments are likely to incentivise this industry the most going forward?
19.
Major oil companies have begun to talk more CCS over the past year. Which ones do you think are the most serious about investing, and which ones have their own proprietary technology?
20.
What are the milestones that you’re looking for in the DAC industry in 2022? Are there specific projects or fund-raising efforts we should pay attention to?
