Abstract

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an established methodology for quantifying the environmental impacts of processes. In this case-study-focused talk, I will share insights from two demonstrator projects that explore the life-cycle environmental impacts of carbon capture and storage (CCS) supply chains. These assessments, based on detailed process inventories, identify environmental hotspots in emerging sustainable technologies before large-scale deployment. We will also discuss how integrating process-level environmental assessments into broader system-level analyses can reveal system-wide knock-on effects. In particular, the talk will examine how deploying carbon capture influences the environmental footprint of net-zero energy systems and why it is essential to consider impacts beyond climate change to ensure sustainable system design.

Speaker Bio

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David Yang Shu is a postdoctoral associate in Professor Sungho Shin’s group at MIT, where he works on nonlinear optimal design of carbon capture units under uncertainty. His research spans environmental life-cycle assessment, process optimization, and sustainable system design, with applications in carbon capture and storage technologies and the broader energy transition. David earned his PhD from ETH Zurich, where he studied the design and operation of net-zero energy systems using multi-criteria optimization to evaluate trade-offs between economic and environmental objectives. He also applied bilevel optimization to model market interactions during the transition to net-zero systems. David contributed to the Horizon 2020 project DMX™ Demonstration in Dunkirk (3D) through full-scale CCUS supply chain assessments and to the Swiss demonstration project DemoUpCARMA, focusing on CO₂ transportation.
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