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Citations

697

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Grant support

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie-Skodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754382, GOT ENERGY TALENT. ESP is grateful for funding from the Young Researchers R&D Project Ref. M-2177-DESMAT financed by the Community of Madrid and the Rey Juan Carlos University. ZC and DMR are grateful for support from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) via grant EP/P026214/1 and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) via grant NE/P019900/1. GAM was supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Research Fellowship scheme. GAM is also grateful for support from the EPSRC via grant EP/V047078/1 (SynHiSel) and the UK Catalysis Hub funded by EPSRC grant reference EP/R027129/1 (Hub 'Science' 3: Catalysis for the Circular Economy and Sustainable Manufacturing). I. Metcalfe, W. Hu and I. Ahmed of Newcastle University are thanked for helpful comments during the preparation of the manuscript.

Analysis of institutional authors

Erans, MAuthorSanz-Perez, EsAuthor

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September 27, 2022
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Review
Hybrid Gold

Direct air capture: process technology, techno-economic and socio-political challenges

Publicated to:Energy & Environmental Science. 15 (4): 1360-1405 - 2022-04-13 15(4), DOI: 10.1039/d1ee03523a

Authors: Erans, Maria; Sanz-Perez, Eloy S; Hanak, Dawid P; Clulow, Zeynep; Reiner, David M; Mutch, Greg A

Affiliations

Cranfield Univ, Sch Water Energy & Environm, Energy & Power Theme, Bedford MK43 0AL, Beds, England - Author
Newcastle Univ, Ctr Energy, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, England - Author
Newcastle Univ, Mat Concepts & React Engn MatCoRE Res Grp, Sch Engn, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, England - Author
Univ Cambridge, Judge Business Sch, Energy Policy Res Grp, Trumpington St, Cambridge CB2 1AG, England - Author
Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Dept Energy Chem & Mech Technol, ESCET, C Tulipan S-N, Madrid 28933, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Climate change mitigation scenarios that meet the Paris Agreement's objective of limiting global warming usually assume an important role for carbon dioxide removal and negative emissions technologies. Direct air capture (DAC) is a carbon dioxide removal technology which separates CO2 directly from the air using an engineered system. DAC can therefore be used alongside other negative emissions technologies, in principle, to mitigate CO2 emissions from a wide variety of sources, including those that are mobile and dispersed. The ultimate fate of the CO2, whether it is stored, reused, or utilised, along with choices related to the energy and materials inputs for a DAC process, dictates whether or not the overall process results in negative emissions. In recent years, DAC has undergone significant technical development, with commercial entities now operating in the market and prospects for significant upscale. Here we review the state-of-the-art to provide clear research challenges across the process technology, techno-economic and socio-political domains.

Keywords

A-carbonAir capturesAmbient airCapture processCarbon dioxideCarbon dioxide removalCarbon-dioxide captureClimate change mitigationClimate-changeCo 2 emissionEmission technologyEnergy-requirementsEngineered systemsFlue-gasGlobal warmingGreenhouse-gas emissionsIntegrated co2 captureMetal-organic frameworkOf-the-artPower-to-methaneProcess technologiesTechnical efficiencyTechno-economicsTechnological change

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 4/178, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Energy & Fuels. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

This publication has been distinguished as a “Highly Cited Paper” by the agencies WoS (ESI, Clarivate) and ESI (Clarivate), meaning that it ranks within the top 1% of the most cited articles in its thematic field during the year of its publication. In terms of the observed impact of the contribution, this work is considered one of the most influential worldwide, as it is recognized as highly cited. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

And this is evidenced by the extremely high normalized impacts through some of the main indicators of this type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of calculation, already indicate that they are well above the average in different agencies:

  • Normalization of citations relative to the expected citation rate (ESI) by the Clarivate agency: 25.34 (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)
  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 27.72 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 104.56 (source consulted: Dimensions Aug 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-08-10, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 302
  • Scopus: 341

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-10:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 721.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 721 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 195.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 34 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on Wikipedia: 4 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 20 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United Kingdom.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Erans Moreno, María) .