Reading the capture technology tea leaves

Ongoing innovations in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) offer a highly promising solution to reduce emissions in hard-to abate sectors. But with dozens of highly differentiated capture platforms currently in development, emitters, investors, and governments need to fully understand the nuances of each technology before making critical investment and deployment decisions. 

Wood Mackenzie has developed a proprietary methodology that uses engineering expertise and economic modelling to accurately profile CCUS platforms for decision makers. Fill out the form to download a full overview of our capture technology profiling, or read on for a quick introduction to the topic. 

Widespread deployment of CCUS relies on massive reductions in cost 

The current benchmark process for carbon capture is amine absorption, a liquid-based purification technology that involves the removal of CO2 via chemical reaction with a solvent solution. While benchmark amine absorption is too expensive today for universal application across industries, most existing CCUS analysis assumes costs will fall incrementally thanks to engineering improvements and optimisation. However, incentives currently available are insufficient to support widespread deployment in hard-to-abate sectors, even with incremental improvements.   

A wide range of CCUS technologies are being developed 

Transformational CCUS platforms – a catch-all term to describe a diverse set of technologies including advanced solvents, solid sorbents, membranes, and more – could dramatically reduce cost of capture by addressing some of benchmark amine absorption’s constraints. However, many of these technologies have not yet been deployed at scale. As such, the mechanisms by which these capture platforms will achieve cost reductions are not only variable from platform to platform but are also hard to predict without a deep understanding of the technology. 

Effective technology profiling requires a mix of engineering expertise and economic modelling 

WoodMac’s capture tech analysis applies both engineering expertise and economic modelling to gain a quantitative view of how costs will evolve over time for each platform currently in development. For each such platform, our team provides both a comprehensive technology profile outlining key process details and conditions as well as a breakdown of the components driving the platform’s total cost. This analysis, paired with input from technology developers, enables us to draw powerful conclusions regarding the short-, mid-, and long-term cost trajectories of technologies ranging from the most advanced to the most nascent.  

Four core risk areas can affect adoption readiness 

While technical readiness is a crucial consideration when evaluating a technology, adoption readiness – a metric that adds on an assessment of market readiness, execution readiness, raw material availability, and more – can be a better indicator of a platforms readiness for at-scale execution. Wood Mackenzie’s adoption readiness assessment builds off work by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions and covers four key assessment criteria: Value Proposition; Market Acceptance; Resource Maturity; and Licence to Operate. 

Ranking technologies on five competencies enables consistent comparisons 

By ranking each platform against a set of core competencies, consistent comparisons can be made both with benchmark amine absorption and against competing technologies. Wood Mackenzie’s platform profiles contain a ranking on a scale of one to five for five key competencies, presented as a radar plot. Factors considered comprise scale readiness; design simplicity; availability and cost optimisation of both chemistries employed and of equipment used; and net energy and resource optimisation. 

With dozens of capture platforms currently in development, emitters, investors and governments must gain a clear understanding of the nuances of each technology to inform critical decision making. We believe our proprietary methodology provides a class-leading solution for this purpose.  

Don’t forget to fill out the form to download the full report, which provides a more detailed overview of our carbon capture technology profiling analysis.