Direct air capture from demonstration to commercialization stage: A bibliometric analysis

Concerns related to increasing CO₂ emission and its effects on global warming and climate change have been increased with increasing the global consumption of fossil fuels. One solution to respond to this challenge is the development and utilization of carbon capturing and storage technologies. Among different carbon capturing technologies, direct air capture (DAC) reduces CO₂ emissions from air. While the technology readiness level (TRL) of DAC is in the demonstration stage, identifying the commercialization research gaps and possible opportunities can help with diffusion and adoption of the technology. This research uses a knowledge discovery in research databases, based on bibliometric analysis and data mining, to understand DAC research and development's current status and future. Then, we identify the critical areas of the research gap for commercialization. The bibliometric analysis results show that DAC has not yet reached its maturity level compared with other carbon capture technologies (CCTs). However, there are different opportunities for the development of this technology. The results indicate that (a) new systematic designs, improvement in nano-catalysts, increase in the capturing capacity, (b) economic and investment improvements in combination with the environmental assessment of the optimized DAC technology, (c) assessment of future prospects, (d) integration with alternative energy supply sources especially renewable energy to respond to the required energy and process integration with current carbon emitted processes, (e) technology demonstration and readiness assessment, and (f) policy and uncertainty analysis of the market are the key areas that should be investigated for the success of this technology in the competitive market.