Direct Air Capture of CO2: Helping to Achieve Net-zero Emissions

According to a 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, most future emission reduction pathways that enable limiting of global average temperature increases to 1.5 ̊C require the deployment of some form of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal. Direct air capture (DAC) is a process of capturing (CO2) directly from ambient air, as opposed to capturing from point sources, such as a cement factory or power plant, and generating a concentrated stream of CO2 for permanent underground storage, or for utilization in products.

The development of, and the global attention on, DAC has significantly increased over the past years, with both research speeding up and various commercial offerings now being available. This webinar will hear expert interventions on why direct air capture is so important, what types of solutions are available, as well as where some of the key R&D focus areas might be in the future.

Agenda

• Welcome by CEM CCUS Initiative: Jarad Daniels, Director, US Department of Energy
• What is direct air capture and why do we need it? Julio Friedmann, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
• Three Technology Solutions:
  • Carbon Engineering: Lori Guetre, Vice President of Business Development
  • Climeworks: Christoph Beuttler, CDR Manager
  • Global Thermostat: Peter Eisenberger, Chief Technology Officer
• Future R&D Focus Areas: Mark Ackiewicz, US Department of Energy

Panelists

Jarad Daniels, Director, Office of Strategic Planning, Analysis, and Engagement; U.S. Department of Energy

Jarad Daniels leads the Office of Strategic Planning, Analysis, and Engagement within the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy, including domestic programs and international engagements conducted in close collaboration with industry, academia, and multi-lateral organizations. Mr. Daniels has twenty-five years of experience with the DOE, managing advanced technology programs and working in several national laboratories throughout the United States. His expertise includes domestic and global energy and environmental technologies, policies, and programs. Mr. Daniels holds a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Julio Friedmann, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University

Dr. Julio Friedmann is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Global Clean Energy Policy at Columbia University, where he leads a new initiative in carbon management. He is also CEO of Carbon Wrangler, LLC. Recently, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy, where he held responsibility for DOE’s R&D program in advanced fossil energy systems, carbon capture, and storage (CCS), CO2 utilization, and clean coal deployment. His expertise includes Large-Scale Carbon Management, CO2 removal, CO2 recycling, Oil and Gas systems, international engagements in clean energy, and inter-agency engagements within the US government. He has also held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including Senior Advisor for Energy Innovation and Chief Energy Technologist, is a Distinguished Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative, and serves as a special advisor to Total SA and the Global CCS Institute. He was recently named as a Senior Fellow to the Breakthrough Institute and a Stanford Precourt Scholar. Dr. Friedmann is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts in the U.S. on carbon removal (CO2 drawdown from the air and oceans), CO2 conversion and use (carbon-to-value), and carbon capture and sequestration. Dr. Friedmann received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Southern California. He worked for five years as a senior research scientist at ExxonMobil, then as a research scientist at the University of Maryland.

Lori Guetre, Vice President of Business Development, Carbon Engineering

Lori has been with Carbon Engineering since April 2018 and brings more than 28 years of experience in the engineering, business development, and financing of complex, mission-critical systems. At CE she leads the development of DAC- based decarbonization solutions in the United States. Before joining CE, Lori held a variety of senior executive positions in the aerospace sector including General Manager and VP Business Development. Lori holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering.

Christoph Beuttler, Carbon Dioxide Removal Manager, Climeworks

Christoph Beuttler is Carbon Dioxide Removal Manager at Swiss Direct Air Capture pioneers Climeworks. He is also deputy director of Risk Dialogue Foundation, a Swiss NGO, and visiting lecturer in Risk Perception and Communication in Science and Policy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. Christoph in an expert on Negative Emissions as well as CO2 utilization with several years of experience in the field. He was educated in Heidelberg and London. His background is in Economics, Management and Sustainability.

Peter Eisenberger, Chief Technology Officer, Global Thermostat

Dr. Peter Eisenberger is a renowned scientist, corporate research executive, business entrepreneur, and leading academic. He started his career at Bell Labs during its heyday, where he pioneered the use of particle accelerators to produce intense X-rays to conduct basic research on the fundamental properties of materials. Dr. Eisenberger was then recruited by Exxon following the oil shocks of the late seventies to lead their Physical Sciences R&D laboratory, where he led a team of international scientists looking at alternative energy technologies including solar energy. He left Exxon for Princeton University, where he was appointed Professor of Physics and founded the Princeton Material Institute, which focused on multidisciplinary applied research in environmental technologies, among others. In 1996, Dr. Eisenberger joined Columbia University where he was appointed Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Vice-Provost, and founding Director of the Columbia Earth Institute and Director of the renowned Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory. In 2006, he co-founded Global Thermostat, which has developed a unique technology for the capture of carbon dioxide from air. Dr. Eisenberger holds degrees in physics from Princeton and Harvard.

Mark Ackiewicz, Director, Division of CCUS R&D, U.S. Department of Energy

Mr. Mark Ackiewicz is the Director for the Division of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Research and Development (R&D) at the Department of Energy (DOE). He is responsible for planning, management, and administration of the division’s R&D portfolio. In this role, he leads a team of scientists and engineers that are collaborating and working domestically and internationally with industry, national laboratories, and universities on developing advanced and transformational CCUS technologies. Before joining DOE in 2007, he worked as a consultant, providing technical, analytical, and strategic planning services to the DOE and its technical research programs. Early in his career, Mark worked in the private sector in various industrial research and engineering positions, where he was responsible for process development and scale-up activities. Mark has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and a Master’s in Engineering Management from George Washington University.