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DAC cost calculator

The cost of direct air capture (DAC) depends on several factors. Our interactive calculator combines key parameters and computes the cost of net removal. Explore the tool, read our article, and read the paper this work is based on.

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How the cost of direct air capture varies under different energy scenarios.

ENERGY SOURCE
Reset
The source of energy for the DAC facility is
$265
Net Removed Cost


$265
Net Removed Cost
$/tCO₂eq

Variable O&M
$7
Natural Gas
$33
Fixed O&M
$42
Capital Recovery
$182
How large will your DAC facility be?
Going bigger tends to reduce costs due to economies of scale, but the effect is modest.
Scale
tCO₂/year
?

How long do you plan to operate the facility?
Spreading out upfront costs by operating the facility longer tends to drive down costs.
Facility Lifetime
years
?

Financing parameters
Building a DAC facility requires capital. These parameters dictate how that capital is financed.
WACC
%
?
Cap Ex
$/tCO₂ ann. cap.
?

Design parameters
A lot goes into building a new DAC facility. Here we expose a few of the most important parameters.
Construction Lead
years
?
Capacity Factor
?
Electric Req
GJ/tCO₂
?
Thermal Req
GJ/tCO₂
?

How much does operation and maintenance cost?
Running a DAC facility comes with fixed and variable costs, associated with regular operation and maintenance.
Fixed O&M
$/tCO₂
?
Variable O&M
$/tCO₂
?
Natural Gas
$/mmBTU
?
Leakage Rate
%
?

Energy Technology
Click to expand and adjust parameters for each energy technology.

NGCC w/ CCS

Advanced NGCC

Brief Methods

This calculator computes the net removed cost ($/tCO₂eq) of carbon removal for a hypothetical DAC facility coupled to one of three different energy sources: natural gas combined with carbon capture and storage (NGCC), wind, and solar. The model estimates the levelized cost of energy, capital expenses, and operation and maintenance costs.

For natural gas, the model assumes that combustion for electricity production is coupled with carbon capture at 90% capture efficiency. The remaining 10% of emissions from electricity production are considered net emissions and factored into net removed cost using a GWP100 of 32. Additionally, the model assumes that all the natural gas combusted for thermal energy is co-captured by the process, resulting in no emissions from combustion. A leakge rate parameter accounts for natural gas leakage, which has been reported as high as 3.7% in the Permian Basin region of the United States.

Given the definition of net removed cost, it is possible to create parameter scenarios with NGCC that do not achieve net carbon removal, because emissions are too large. We show this case with gray bars in the calculator.

The entire model is implemented natively in JavaScript and available on Github, and a Python version is under development. The model is based directly on a paper by McQueen et al. (2021). There may be small differences (± $10) between the model outputs above and the results in the paper due to implementation differences.

Read our article for more information.

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