Response Doctoral Program

Navigating the complexities of bioenergy, its potential for carbon neutrality, and its conflicts with land, food, and feed resources is a pressing issue. What if we could circumvent these issues and focus solely on land-free bioenergy, similar to growing mushrooms on waste coffee grounds for a delicious dish? Waste and byproducts can generate valuable bioenergy, playing strategic roles in a future sustainable energy system.

The ETH Energy Blog post of RESPONSE fellow Fei Wu presents key findings from our latest research papers, providing insights into the strategic applications of land-free bioenergy and its policy implications. Join us in exploring the ‘why,’ ‘what’, and ‘how’ of deploying land-free bioenergy effectively in the quest for carbon neutrality.

Response Doctoral Program

To meet net-zero targets by mid-century, gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year must be removed through direct air capture and storage (DACS). However, current deployment is low, requiring DACS technologies to be deployed at an unprecedented pace. The ETH Energy Blog post of RESPONSE fellow Katrin Sievert explores the two most advanced capture methods used in DACS, compares their scalability, and stresses the significance of investing in multiple technologies over the next decade instead of solely relying on existing approaches.

Read Katrin Sieverts’ Energy Blog article.

Response Doctoral Program

To meet net-zero targets by mid-century, gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year must be removed through direct air capture and storage (DACS). However, current deployment is low, requiring DACS technologies to be deployed at an unprecedented pace. The ETH Energy Blog post of RESPONSE fellow Katrin Sievert explores the two most advanced capture methods used in DACS, compares their scalability, and stresses the significance of investing in multiple technologies over the next decade instead of solely relying on existing approaches.

Read Katrin Sieverts’ Energy Blog article.

Response Doctoral Programme

“No” says Bessie Noll et al. (2021) in a synthesis paper as renewable energy technologies have significant advantage over current non-traditional nuclear reactor designs.

Taking insight foremost from a 2021 study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) on “advanced” nuclear reactors, their synthesis examines three non-traditional nuclear reactor designs based on three UCS defined evaluation criterion—safety and security risk, sustainability, and nuclear proliferation potential—as well as one additional criterion added newly, “economics”.  Proclaimed advantages of non-traditional over traditional reactors are also included in an “Expectation vs. Reality” rapid-fire comparison.

Some of the arguments:

• Technologically immature non-traditional reactors have to compete with renewable energy technologies which are already today drastically cheaper on a $/kWh basis and have much steeper learning curves.

• Even with optimistic assumptions for deployment timelines, non-traditional reactors will likely be outcompeted in deployment by renewables and grid-scale battery storage (in some cases, they already are)—relatively more mature technologies that are readily being deployed today

• It is highly unlikely that non-traditional reactors will be able to ramp-up construction fast enough to stay in-line with climate targets.

• Nuclear reactors built in a modular fashion are not spared the curse of high capital cost and long construction times in practice.

• Non-traditional reactors introduce new safety issues that will require extensive testing and analysis. The technology itself is too early in its development stage to be certain of all possible safety issues.