Affordable direct air capture: report from a MIT seminar

Direct air capture (DAC) technologies extract carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere. DAC and other carbon-removal technologies may play a key role in global and national efforts to achieve net-zero emissions economies in which the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere is equivalent to that being removed. Carbon removed from the atmosphere in hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as aviation and heavy industry could be utilized to produce synthetic fuels or stored underground. As the technology has not yet been demonstrated at large scales, the future cost of DAC and its potential to support an affordable path to a net-zero economy is uncertain. Capture cost estimates are wide-ranging, from USD $50/ton to $1,000/ton of CO2.

To explore the economic feasibility of large-scale DAC, the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and MIT Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment (LAE) convened a seminar entitled “Affordable Direct Air Capture: Myth or Reality?” on the MIT Campus and online on May 26. Moderated by MIT Joint Program Founding Co-Director and Sloan School of Management Professor Emeritus Henry Jacoby, and introduced by LAE Director and MIT Aero/Astro Professor Steven Barrett, the seminar featured presentations by two trailblazers in carbon-removal technology.

Read the full reporting article

Watch the seminar recordings