Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder analyzed the trade-offs between Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Direct Ocean Capture (DOC). The study focused on using electricity-driven bipolar membrane electrodialysis to replace high-heat regeneration, which traditionally relies on burning natural gas. Findings show that while DOC processes carbon-rich seawater, the massive equipment footprint makes it significantly more expensive upfront than DAC. However, DAC requires much higher electrical intensity to recover carbon from concentrated solutions, making grid decarbonization essential for both methods to be truly carbon-negative.
