Lecture

Beyond Techno-Economics: Responsible Deployment in Carbon Management

Monday
October 10, 2022
12:00pm - 1:30pm
In-person & Zoom Zoom or Kleinman Energy Forum, 4th Floor Fisher Fine Arts Library

The science is clear: to avoid the worst impacts of climate change we’ll need aggressive, economy-wide decarbonization in combination with atmospheric carbon removal at the billion-ton scale. These efforts will require unprecedented management of carbon dioxide through strategic technical deployment and infrastructure buildout.

But given the rapid pace and scale of deployment ahead, how can we identify responsible pathways that maximize benefits and minimize harms?

In this talk, Pete Psarras explores challenges and opportunities in carbon management, illustrating how various impact layers from the techno-economic, social, and environmental perspectives interact to form a new picture of deployment.

What role will energy-intensive options like direct air capture play and how will our decision-making today impact that role by mid-century? How does grid electrification and transmission buildout play into technology siting? What are the opportunities for community co-benefits? And alternatively, how do we assess tradeoffs that pit inevitable impacts against one another? Take a journey into the real-world case study of Nevada and its net-zero ambitions to help address these questions and set the stage for a challenging yet critical road ahead.

Speakers

Pete Psarras

Pete Psarras

Research Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering SEAS and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

Peter Psarras is a research assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He oversees the direction of Jennifer Wilcox’s lab, focusing on carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture.

His research involves techno-economic and life-cycle assessments of carbon capture, utilization and storage, and carbon dioxide removal systems, specifically in identifying regional opportunities for deployment. Peter received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Miami University in 2005 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Cleveland State University in 2014.