Life cycle assessment of a direct air capture to renewable natural gas production platform

Global warming is a leading threat to humanity. Carbon capture, especially direct air capture (DAC), is the key to its reversal. The bottleneck of the DAC expansion is its high cost vs. the insufficient value of CO2. On the other hand, Atlantic Canada has unmet natural gas demand, especially after the termination of Sable and Deep Panuke gas production in 2018. Furthermore, to address the emission challenges, the Canadian Government has put forth an aspirational mandate to blend in 10% of renewable natural gas by 2030. To tackle these challenges, Gaia Refinery is developing a platform to employ a passive wind-assisted DAC system integrated with an RNG production platform utilizing direct methanation within microbial electrosynthesis cells to facilitate the economic output of pipeline grade RNG while removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Compare with traditional organic-based RNG, our system has fewer feedstock constraints, a higher output rate, and can eliminate the need for gas purification/upgrading. We are currently developing our demonstration unit. Expertise in life cycle assessment (LCA) will help us account for multiple environmental impact categories, particularly carbon footprint, over the entire life cycle of our products/services.

Faculty Supervisor:

Baiyu Zhang

Student:

Partner:

Gaia Refinery

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Utilities

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program: