Roads to Removal: A supply curve for CO2 removal capacity in the United States

Senior Advisor for Carbon Removal, Office of the Under Secretary for Energy and Innovation, U.S. Department of Energy

Energy Program Chief Scientist, E Program, Global Security, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

We are delighted to host Dr Roger D. Aines at the Maxwell Centre for a talk followed by a "in conversation" session chaired by Dr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig.

Abstract

Roads to Removal: A supply curve for CO2 removal capacity in the United States

The United States has a 2050 net-zero goal which will require approximately one billion tons of true removals from the atmosphere in order to compensate for residual emissions that cannot be eliminated by that time. Our team of 70 researchers from LLNL and a dozen other institutions has completed the first study of how the U.S. might obtain those removals. In a county-by-county analysis, we evaluated four technologies that have sufficient cost and effectiveness data to make reasonable estimates of 2050 supply and costs:

• Soil carbon improvements in cultivated lands,
• Forestry in three major forested regions of the U.S.,
• Biomass carbon removal and storage, and
• Direct air capture.

In addition, we simultaneously considered key requirements for projects that permanently remove CO2 from the air:

• Geologic storage,
• Transportation of CO2 or biomass,
• Availability of additional renewable energy to power projects,
• Cross-cutting resource requirements and environmental impacts, and
• Energy equity and environmental justice impacts.

We estimated costs for 2050 implementation based on current costs and assumed learning, then organized the costs into supply curves under various constraints. A representative scenario would cost about $130B: the majority of the removals would come from soil, forests, and biomass carbon removal and storage. Our results are presented by technology and by region with the intent of enabling local decision makers to evaluate projects, impacts, and appropriate compensation. In this talk I will present the methods and results from this study. The report and additional details can be found at www.roads2removal.org.

Bio

Roger Aines is the Senior Advisor for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the DOE Office of the Under Secretary for Energy and Innovation. He provides oversight and assistance with all aspects of the Carbon Negative initiative, including providing technical advice and guidance to the Under Secretary program portfolio to support the advancement of technologies to reduce carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of fossil fuel production and use, particularly the hardest-to-decarbonize applications in the electricity and industrial sectors. He is on detail from his position as Energy Program Chief Scientist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which conducts government and private sector research in clean energy technology.

Roger developed and led the Carbon Initiative at LLNL, which aims to understand, develop, and implement technologies for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so-called negative emissions technologies. He has been at LLNL since 1984 working on nuclear waste disposal, environmental remediation, application of stochastic methods to inversion and data fusion, management of carbon emissions including separation technology, and monitoring and verification methods for sequestration. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Carleton College, and Doctor of Philosophy in geochemistry from the California Institute of Technology. 

Registration https://forms.office.com/e/1eaeyuDr53

(Free to attend, registration required)

Agenda

11:00 - 12:00 "Roads to Removal: A supply curve for CO2 removal capacity in the United States" seminar by Dr Roger D. Aines 

12:00 - 12:30 in conversation session: Dr Roger D. Aines and Dr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig, including Q&A with the audience