Negative emissions potential from CCU technologies

In the context of the energy transition, Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) gain interest each time CO2 atmospheric concentration is measured, as there is no decrease nor even stabilization of this concentration expected in the next years. These NETs are technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it. NETs cover both biological processes, such as terrestrial carbon sequestration, or Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS), and industrial processes, like CO2 mineralization or Direct Air Carbon Capture and Sequestration (DACCS). Depending on the implemented technology, environmental impacts are likely to occur, because of utilities consumption, nutrients and water needs, etc. Such externalities have to be assessed to have a global overview of the pros and the cons of each technology. The objective of this PhD thesis subject is to assess the environmental impacts of different Carbon Capture and Use (CCU) technologies associated with end of life with carbon storage in the soil. In addition, multiple use of the carbon once it has been firstly captured will be considered.
The department offers a motivated student the opportunity to participate in its work as part of a three-year thesis, with the following main objectives:
1.    Developing new ways to integrate biogenic carbon flows when assessing negative emissions linked with CCU technologies and soil carbon sequestration.
2.    Paying special attention on the multiple end of lives that will be assessed at each cascading levels (open loop recycling, close loop recycling, soil carbon sequestration, combustion…).
3.    Integrating the evolving nature of the reference systems to dynamically account for the environmental benefits linked to CCU.

Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Negative emissions, Carbon Capture Use

• Academic supervisor    Dr HELIAS Arnaud, ITAP-INRAE, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8652-5611
• Doctoral School    GAIA, https://gaia.umontpellier.fr/
• IFPEN supervisors    LORNE Daphné, Economics and Environmental Evaluation Department, daphne.lorne@ifpen.fr. BEAUCHET Sandra, Economics and Environmental Evaluation Department, sandra.beauchet@ifpen.fr
• PhD location    IFP Energies nouvelles, Rueil-Malmaison, France 
• Duration and start date    3 years, starting in fourth quarter 2021
• Employer    IFP Energies nouvelles, Rueil-Malmaison, France
• Academic requirements    University Master degree in Process engineering or Agronomy
• Language requirements    Fluency in English, willingness to learn French
• Other requirements    Theoretical and practical knowledge in LCA, Programming skills (Python) would be a plus