The Paris Agreement of 2015 has prompted countries to accelerate their efforts to become carbon neutrality efforts, which meant reducing CO2 emissions to virtually zero. Limiting global warming to less than 1.5°C by 2050 rely on technologies that remove CO2 from the atmosphere faster than humans release it. This implies that CO2 will be removed at a rate of 1-30 gigaton per year by 2050. Carbon Capture Storage / Sequestration (CCS) and Utilization (CCU) are concepts and technologies that collect emitted CO2 store it permanently underground, or recycle it as energy or chemicals for use in manufacturing and other economic activities. CCS and CCU have been discussed globally, but have not reached local and practical levels. Currently planned large-scale CCS requires significant government investment and new technological developments for capture, transport, and storage / sequestration, therefore implementation is expected to start in the second half of 2030 towards the 2050 goal. The need to start acting now where possible rather than waiting for the distant future, makes it important to implement CCS and CCU on a small scale and build towards future scale-up as an immediate solution. This study proposes a support method and system to help companies that emit large amounts of CO2 such as power plants, cement, petrochemicals, and steel industries, to decide how to treat their CO2 emissions in the context of decarbonization. In this study, a Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Relative, and Time-Bound (SMART) decision support method and Direct Air Capture Location and Cost Simulator (DLCS) system were developed to provide a solution to the Negative Emission 5W1H âWhat, Who, Which, When, Why, and Howâ from the perspective of a company that emits CO2. A prototype model with parameter settings was proposed based on knowledge gained from practical experience. The functionality of the SMART method and DLCS system was confirmed by applying sample data from the actual data of the âTokyo Regionâ as a Proof of Concept (PoC). In this PoC, characteristics of direct air capture which is a critical technology for negative emissions, were verified. The core of the SMART and DLCS model entails combinatorial optimization, distance calculation, cost estimation, and market projection including constraint solution.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the important initiatives widely used across different industries in reducing atmospheric carbon emissions, which is an essential environmental goal outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) in 2015. In an effort to mitigate carbon-emission problem, CCS extracts (i.e., captures and compresses) and stores CO 2 from industrial by-products as an alternative to releasing it directly into the atmosphere. CCS presents opportunities for the captured CO 2 to immediate utilization or to be stored at adjacent facilities for future utilization in different industrial productions. Despite its potential in reducing carbon emissions, its effectiveness and possible economic incentivization are unknown due to a lack of transparency in tracking the quantitative output concerning carbon reduction at different stages of CCS activities (capture, transportation, and storage) currently deployed in different industrial plants. In this paper, we propose an enhanced CCS for recording and tracking the quantitative output of CCS activities using blockchain (i.e., a distributed-ledger) technology that promotes transparency among stakeholders, e.g., government, regulatory body, technical experts, and general public, and facilitates rewards toward effective carbon-emission reductions. Although blockchain is a promising technology that can increase the efficiency of CCS, we also identify a few future challenges, such as data privacy and scalability, that have to be taken into account toward implementing the proposed architecture.
Geoengineering is a proposed response to anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Conventionally it consists of two strands: Solar Radiation Management (SRM), which is fast-acting, incomplete but inexpensive, and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which is slower acting, more expensive, and comprehensive. Pairing SRM and CDR offers a contractually complete solution for future emissions if effectively-scaled and coordinated. SRM offsets warming, while CDR takes effect.We suggest coordination using a blockchain, i.e. smart contracts and a distributed ledger. Specifically, we integrate CDR futures with time and volume-matched SRM orders, to address emissions contractually before release. This provides an economically and environmentally proportionate solution to CO2 emissions at the wellhead, with robust contractual transparency, and minimal overhead cost. Our proposal offers a âpolluter paysâ implementation of Long & Shepherds SRM âbridgeâ concept. This âpolluter geoengineersâ approach mandates and verifies emissions-linked payments with minimal friction, delay, or cost. Finally, we compare alternative market designs against this proposal, finding that this proposal offers several advantages. We conclude that blockchain implementation of the âpolluter geoengineersâ approach is attractive and feasible for larger wellhead contracts. We also identify a handful of advantages and disadvantages that merit further study.