At the 33rd European Biomass Conference & Exhibition (EUBCE 2025), the DRIVE project presented its latest research on evaluating the environmental performance of advanced CO₂ capture systems through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), a crucial step toward enabling cost-effective, sustainable decarbonisation in energy-intensive industries.

The presentation, titled “Life Cycle Analysis of Deep Removal Carbon Capture Processes”, was delivered by researchers from IDMEC – Instituto Superior Técnico (University of Lisbon). Their work forms part of the LIFE and sustainability assessment activities within DRIVE, focusing on identifying the environmental trade-offs of thermal and electrochemical regeneration pathways for CO₂ capture.

Why Deep Removal Matters in Industrial Decarbonisation

Carbon capture is the first, and most resource-intensive, step in both CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage) and CCU (Carbon Capture & Utilisation) value chains. DRIVE aims to develop technologies able to achieve deep removal (>95%) of CO₂ from industrial point sources such as cement, lime and steel plants.

The project sets an ambitious target: a marginal cost below 200 €/tCO₂, making advanced capture feasible for widespread deployment in Europe’s hard-to-abate sectors.

To support this, the research team applies Life Cycle Assessment to determine how emerging CO₂ capture technologies perform across their entire lifecycle, from raw materials to end-of-life.

LCA Methodology and KPIs Applied to CO₂ Capture Technologies

The study presented at EUBCE evaluates:

• Three CO₂ capture technologies:
  • 1 thermal regeneration pathway
  • 2 electrochemical regeneration pathways
• Environmental performance across the full life cycle, using harmonised system boundaries and functional units.
• A detailed case study for a cement plant, integrating elements such as the direct contact cooler (DCC), water wash, control block and heater.

To ensure comparability and transparency, the researchers defined a robust set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including:

• Climate change impacts (kg CO₂-eq)
• Water and energy use
• Material and land use
• Ecotoxicity, acidification and eutrophication potentials
• Human toxicity (carcinogenic & non-carcinogenic)
• Particulate matter formation
• Photochemical ozone formation
• Ionising radiation impact

These KPIs help reveal the environmental trade-offs of each technological route and support clear sustainability benchmarking.

Preliminary Findings: Environmental Insights on Thermal vs. Electrochemical Routes

According to the results shared at the conference:

• All technologies assessed demonstrate strong potential to support industrial decarbonisation.
• Electrochemical routes may offer environmental advantages in specific impact categories, whereas thermal regeneration remains competitive under certain operational conditions.
• LCA highlights the importance of system boundaries (particularly cradle-to-grave) to avoid misleading interpretations, especially in CCU systems.
• The ongoing assessment of eight impact scenarios will provide a clearer view of the CO₂ avoidance rate for each technological path.

Contribution to European Climate Neutrality Goals

The DRIVE research presented at EUBCE reinforces the crucial role of holistic sustainability analysis in supporting Europe’s transition to net-zero:

• It ensures alignment of advanced CO₂ capture systems with environmental regulations and the EU Green Deal.
• It enables industry stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions on which capture technologies best fit their decarbonisation strategies.
• It establishes a transparent, scientifically sound basis for evaluating deep removal technologies at demonstration scale (TRL 5–7).

This work demonstrates the commitment of the DRIVE consortium to not only improve the technical efficiency of CO₂ capture, but also to ensure that these innovations are environmentally responsible and scalable.