Multiple greenhouse gases mitigation to achieve “Energy efficient negative emissions from agricultural sector”

The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) have identified the importance of CO2 removal technologies like direct air capture (DAC) to achieve climate targets. However, non-CO2 gases like CH4 and N2O contribute to 28% of annual anthropogenic emissions, that are hard to abate and majority of it coming from agricultural and farming sector.

The figure shows the multiple greenhouse gases mitigation (MGM) concept. Air closer to agricultural and farming fields enters the system where CH4 and N2O are either concentrated or directly converted to CO2, N2 and O2. CO2 is captured over the filter. Additional energy is used to heat up the saturated filter to release the CO2 that is then sent for utilization or storage. The air leaving the system is free from CH4, N2O and CO2.

In Sweden, agricultural and farming sector account for 13% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. This project proposes a novel multiple greenhouse gases mitigation (MGM) concept to remove CH₄, N₂O and CO₂ emissions from air closer to agricultural and farming fields at lower energy demand. The MGM concept sets a new standard for DAC technologies.

The project aims to develop techno-economic-environmental-policy framework in close interaction with stakeholders (farmers and policymakers) to analyze the opportunities with MGM and DAC against other negative emission technologies (NETs) like BECCS. The important methodologies will be process modelling & simulation for techno-economic analysis (at KTH), life cycle analysis (LCA) to assess and optimize environmental impact (at SLU), and stakeholder interviews and policy analysis to explore social acceptability and policy incentives (at UU).

The proposed interdisciplinary collaboration between KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and Uppsala University (UU) will develop valuable knowledge and educate 3 PhDs in respective areas. The project runs between 2020-2024 and is coordinated by KTH.

Project funding

13.77 Million SEK received from Energimyndigheten within the Forskarskolan programme.

Project leader

Shareq Mohd Nazir, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, contact: smnazir@kth.se