Global strategic deployment of Direct Air Capture technologies

Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a promising negative emission technology with the potential to remove excess CO ₂ from the atmosphere. The levelized cost of solid sorbent (S-DAC) and liquid solvent DAC (L-DAC) is highly region-specific, driven by variability in weather conditions and renewable energy potential. This necessitates a holistic, global assessment that combines these two advanced technologies to identify cost-optimal technology-specific locations for DAC deployment. Here, we identified optimal global locations for the S-DAC and L-DAC using an hourly cost optimization model that incorporates weather-driven performance and region-specific solar, wind, and geothermal energy resources under fully electric and hybrid energy configurations. We show that DAC deployment is cost-optimal in regions combining low renewable energy costs with favorable weather conditions, with S-DAC favored in Australia, Iceland, Mexico, and parts of Asia, and L-DAC in much of South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The energy configuration strongly influences costs, with hybrid systems integrating direct renewable heat achieving lower global levelized costs of DAC in 2050, ranging from 165 €/tCO ₂ to 1720 €/tCO ₂ . Our study further reveals that DAC can achieve a projected global capacity of 2 GtCO ₂ at costs below 195 €/tCO ₂ when deployed in cost-optimal regions. Only under highly optimistic assumptions involving enhanced process efficiencies and reduced investment costs does the levelized cost of DAC approach 100 €/tCO ₂ . These results emphasize the importance of holistic, region-specific assessment to guide strategic and cost-effective global DAC deployment, aligned with the cost-efficiency principles in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.