A bioengineering roadmap for negative emissions technologies

Negative emissions technologies that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are a critical tool to limit global temperature rise and ocean acidification. Bioengineering capabilities have not been sufficiently assessed or utilized for the development of negative emissions technologies. Bioengineering holds the potential to improve the efficiency of some existing technologies and to create new methods of carbon removal. I review existing technologies to assess how bioengineering could improve them, focusing on technologies that could achieve at least 1 Gt of CO₂ removal per year. I also investigate and describe potential new methods of carbon removal that leverage bioengineering. Key questions for additional research are identified, as are key engineering targets for the development of improved negative emissions technologies. This evaluation of potential high-impact R&D work is intended to provide an initial roadmap for the development of bioengineered negative emissions technologies that are scalable, sustainable, and can remove gigatons of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Sclarsic, Sarah Mary Haiken.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Edward S. Boyden.

• Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130839

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130839