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Title: Net-zero emissions energy systems

Journal Article · · Science
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [8];  [1]; ORCiD logo [9];  [10];  [11];  [12]; ORCiD logo [13]; ORCiD logo [14]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [15]; ORCiD logo [16];  [17]; ORCiD logo [18] more »; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [19];  [7];  [3]; ORCiD logo [20];  [21]; ORCiD logo [3];  [20]; ORCiD logo [7];  [22]; ORCiD logo;  [7] « less
  1. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  3. Carnegie Inst. of Science, Stanford, CA (United States)
  4. Energy Innovation, San Francisco, CA (United States)
  5. Joint Inst. for Strategic Energy Analysis, Golden, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  6. Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  7. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  8. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
  9. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  10. Vibrant Clean Energy, LLC, Boulder, CO (United States)
  11. Clean Air Task Force, Boston, MA (United States)
  12. Rocky Mountain Inst., Boulder, CO (United States)
  13. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  14. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom); Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States)
  15. Holy Cross Energy, Glenwood Springs, CO (United States)
  16. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  17. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States)
  18. Lucid Strategy, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  19. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
  20. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  21. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  22. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Santa Fe Inst. (SFI), Santa Fe, NM (United States)

Some energy services and industrial processes - such as long-distance freight transport, air travel, highly reliable electricity, and steel and cement manufacturing - are particularly difficult to provide without adding carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Rapidly growing demand for these services, combined with long lead times for technology development and long lifetimes of energy infrastructure, make decarbonization of these services both essential and urgent. We examine barriers and opportunities associated with these difficult-to-decarbonize services and processes, including possible technological solutions and research and development priorities. A range of existing technologies could meet future demands for these services and processes without net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere, but their use may depend on a combination of cost reductions via research and innovation, as well as coordinated deployment and integration of operations across currently discrete energy industries.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1460617
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5D00-70804
Journal Information:
Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 6396 Vol. 360; ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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