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The prospects of massively scalable nuclear-powered direct air capture as a climate solution

Abstract

Direct air capture (DAC) has recently emerged as a promising and scalable solution for removing accumulated CO2 in the atmosphere to mitigate global warming. Because DAC needs to capture CO2 from highly diluted levels in the air, it has considerably higher energy demands than conventional CO2 capture from concentrated industrial sources, making cheap input energy essential. The present study proposes that DAC facilities be powered by dedicated large-scale nuclear power plants designed to deliver the optimal heat/electricity ratio to a DAC unit serving as the condenser in the Rankine power cycle. Such plants are unbound by proximity requirements to CO2 point sources or electricity demand centres and can be built where nuclear reactors are cheapest to construct, strongly improving the business case. A bottom-up techno-economic assessment and uncertainty quantification study for the year 2050 showed median and 90 % confidence intervals of the levelized cost of removed CO2 to be 101.6 (71.3–153.9) $/ton when conventional nuclear reactor technology is used. An advanced configuration employing emerging high-temperature nuclear reactor technology to generate excess electricity for co-production of green methanol was slightly more expensive with a larger uncertainty range: 108.0 (68.8–176.1) $/ton. Despite the uncertainty in the assessment, the calculated CO2 removal costs are attractive compared to projected CO2 prices in climate change mitigation scenarios targeting substantial emissions reductions by mid-century. However, several non-economic challenges were identified and further work on these topics is recommended to clarify the long-term potential of nuclear-DAC technology as a leading climate change solution.
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Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Industry / Process Technology
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2025

Published in

International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

ISSN

1750-5836

Volume

144

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository