Daniel Stauft | MEL Candidate | Dec 16, 2022
Mentors: Carlie Owen, Navius Research
Abstract
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that 5-16 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide will need to be removed from the atmosphere by 2050 if there is to be a chance at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in that time. Currently absorbing approximately one third of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and offering a storage reservoir 50x greater in size than earth’s atmosphere, the ocean has significant potential for carbon capture.
Navius Research, a Vancouver-based consulting firm, is looking to integrate ocean based carbon capture into their energy model, gTech. This will provide flexibility and additional pathways to their modelled net-zero scenarios. There are multiple technologies available for ocean based carbon capture, none of which have been commercialized as of 2022. Therefore, technology readiness for these methods was assessed before selecting the one with the highest TRL. The levelized cost of carbon dioxide removal for the selected ocean based method was then calculated and compared to the direct air capture (DAC) methods that are currently integrated into gTech.
The results show that ocean based methods have the potential to be the lowest cost way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the process is very electricity intensive and as such, the levelized cost of removal is very dependent on the cost of electricity. The sensitivity analysis shows that ocean-based capture will remain the lowest cost method for carbon capture with an electricity cost at, or below CAD $0.14/kWh. In British Columbia, the general service business electricity rate is CAD $0.1253/kWh. This, along with its coastal access, makes British Columbia an attractive option for the application, and development of ocean based carbon capture.