Cost and carbon numbers that count as evidence, not claims.
Independent techno-economic and life-cycle assessment for founders with a raise or an offtake agreement in the next 6 months. I test the ag
- In carbon capture since 2012
- Consulting independently since 2021
- 4,860 citations h-index 39, Google Scholar, Sep 2026
- Top 2% most-cited in energy, Stanford/Elsevier, 2022–2024
- Chartered Engineer MIMechE, MEI
- Work delivered for IEAGHG · Innovate UK · PolyCapture · The Catalyst Group
The problem
Until someone independent tests them, your numbers are your claims.
You have a cost model, a carbon footprint and pilot data. Your team built them, so anyone deciding whether to fund you or buy from you will treat them as claims until someone without a stake has checked them. That check usually happens in diligence, on their timetable.
Where business cases come apart
| Weak point | Area | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot to plant | Engineering | Pilot results may not hold in continuous operation at commercial scale. |
| Optimistic inputs | Economics | Capex and opex rest on high utilisation, cheap energy or yields nobody has tested. |
| Mismatched boundaries | Environmental integrity | The TEA, the LCA and the MRV plan each draw the system boundary somewhere different. |
| Assumed dependencies | Delivery | Site, permits, storage and offtake are written in as secured when they are still assumptions. |
The usual result is a delayed decision, or a model rebuilt in a hurry halfway through diligence.
How an engagement runs
From your design basis to a decision that holds, in 5 steps.
You provide the documents, models and pilot data you already have, and answers to focused questions by email. There is no new software to learn and no parallel internal study to run.
Step 01 of 05
Scope
Frame the decision
We agree what the evidence has to support, whether a raise, an offtake agreement, a grant or the next engineering commitment, and who will scrutinise it. Then we fix the boundary, feedstock, site and maturity assumptions everything else depends on. An NDA is signed before any data changes hands.
Where you end up
Your engineers, CTO and CEO work from one agreed description of the system and the decision.
Step 02 of 05
Surface
Find the assumptions that decide the outcome
Every assumption that carries weight in your TEA, LCA and financial model goes into one register, tagged as measured, supplier data, literature or engineering judgement, and ranked by how far it moves your headline cost and carbon numbers.
Where you end up
You know which handful of numbers decide the case, and which external dependencies are still assumptions.
Step 03 of 05
Scrutinise
Test the evidence independently
The priority assumptions are tested against published evidence, comparable technologies, benchmarks and my own modelling, including what your pilot data can and cannot support at commercial scale.
Where you end up
Someone with no stake in the answer has asked the hard questions before an investor or buyer does.
Step 04 of 05
Synthesise
Put the case together and stress it
Engineering, economic and environmental evidence are reconciled onto the same boundaries, throughput, energy use, plant lifetime and scale. Scenarios then move several assumptions at once, because that is how diligence treats them.
Where you end up
Economics you know will survive an imperfect year, and carbon claims built on boundaries anyone can inspect.
Step 05 of 05
Support
Make the stage-gate call
The findings are written for the decision you named at the start: what is defensible now, what remains uncertain, and what has to happen before the next commitment. Sometimes the answer is that the case is not ready yet.
Where you end up
A single, independently challenged evidence base for investors, grant assessors, customers and your board.
What if you find nothing wrong?Then you go into diligence with an independent record that the assumptions were examined and hold up.
What I look at
The 3E Framework tests engineering, economics and environmental integrity together.
Each can be right on its own and the case can still fall apart where they meet.
Engineering
What the pilot proves
What your pilot proves about a plant at commercial scale, and what is still extrapolation.
Economics
What the plant costs and earns
Capex, opex and revenue under realistic changes in energy price, yield, utilisation and scale, including the downside case.
Environmental integrity
What each tonne removes
Whether your TEA, LCA and MRV use the same boundaries, and what the lifecycle numbers say about net removal rather than gross capture.
One basis
All 3 are tested on the same boundaries, the same throughput and the same plant.
Gross is not net
Carbon Engineering’s published direct air capture design delivers 1.46 MtCO2/yr. Of that, 0.98 MtCO2/yr comes from the air. The rest is from natural gas burned on site. Count all of it as removal and the claim is nearly 50% too high before any lifecycle emissions are subtracted.
Keith et al., Joule, 2018
I also record which site, permit and offtake assumptions are secured and which are still assumed. I do not handle permitting or offtake negotiation.
Ways to work together
Most founders start with the review.
Recommended starting point
Independent TEA/LCA Review
Fits when
You already have a model and I test it. Best when a raise or offtake diligence is live.
You receive
- An assumption register, tagged by source
- A challenge log with a verdict on each priority assumption
- A sensitivity summary with the downside case
- A report you can hand to an investor as it stands
- A findings session with your leadership
Build it independently
Scale-up & TEA Assessment
Fits when
You need the economics built by someone with no stake in the answer.
You receive
- Capex and opex
- Cost per tonne today and the trajectory to an Nth-of-a-kind plant
- Sensitivity analysis
- A benchmark against competing pathways
- A report and the live model
For buyers and registries
LCA & Carbon Integrity Assessment
Fits when
You need carbon numbers a buyer or registry will accept.
You receive
- An ISO 14040/44 life-cycle assessment
- Carbon intensity per tonne removed or per unit of product
- Documentation aligned with registry requirements
Each has a fixed scope and a fixed fee, agreed after a fit call. Where a review leaves a question unresolved, the report says so plainly, and you decide whether it needs answering and by whom.
Why independent matters
I do not design, build or sell the plant, and there is no follow-on delivery contract for me to win.
The only thing I have riding on the work is that the answer holds up when someone else checks it. If the case is not ready, better to hear it from me than from an investor.
- NDA before any data changes handsYour models and pilot data stay confidential.
- Exclusivity on requestNo direct competitor for the length of the engagement plus 6 months.
- Fixed scope, fixed feeAgreed after a fit call. No hourly billing.
Track record
Prof Dawid Hanak
Professor of Decarbonisation of Industrial Clusters at the Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC), Teesside University
My work asks one question of carbon capture, direct air capture, hydrogen and CO2 utilisation: does it stack up once the engineering, the economics and the lifecycle carbon are counted on the same basis? I have worked on that question in carbon capture since 2012, including 7.5 years as Associate Professor in Energy and Process Engineering at Cranfield University.
I have run this consultancy since 2021, separately from my university role. Consulting engagements are contracted through Aiia Consultancy and Management Ltd.
Dawid has successfully undertaken 3 projects for us with 2 more in preparation now. We also will retain Dawid as an independent reviewer for third party tests being carried out.
Kenneth Flockhart · Technical Director, Changeover Technologies
| Chartered | Chartered Engineer (MIMechE, MEI) |
| Doctorate | PhD in Energy, Cranfield. Lord Kings Norton Medal for the best thesis, 2017 |
| Citations | 4,860, h-index 39 (Google Scholar, Sep 2026) |
| Most-cited paper | 2022 direct air capture review, Energy & Environmental Science, 794 citations |
| Clients | IEAGHG, Innovate UK, PolyCapture, The Catalyst Group |
Articles
The number the press release leaves out.
The latest articles on this site, newest first. The monthly Decarbonisation newsletter and The GreenTech Business Case are published on LinkedIn.
- CO2 transport and storage: the real CCUS bottleneck
- Is 2026 the Year Carbon Capture Scales Up? CCUS, DAC and Industrial Decarbonisation Explained
- Path to Net Zero: 2025 as a Year of Transition
- Path to Net Zero: Installing My Daikin Heat Pump System
Also writing for illuminem Voices and The Conversation.
Speaking and training
Keynotes and short courses on what the numbers actually say.
I have given 18 invited talks and keynotes, including at NSTDA in Thailand, IMechE, Hitachi, Chem-E Day in Peru and TED Countdown. I also run short courses in techno-economic assessment and Carbon Literacy training.
NSTDA · IMechE · Hitachi · Chem-E Day · TED Countdown
For event organisers and teams
Tell me the audience and the decision they face. I will say whether a keynote, a workshop or a short course fits.
Questions founders ask
Before you book.
We already have a TEA and LCA.
Good. The review starts from them. The question is not whether the work is competent. It is whether anyone without a stake in the answer has challenged the assumptions underneath it.
We don’t have enough data yet.
That is when a review helps most. It separates what has to be measured now, what can be bounded, and what does not matter for the next decision.
Our investors haven’t asked for this.
Investors form a view of your numbers from the first deck. Finding a weak assumption before diligence means you fix it on your timetable rather than theirs.
Will you tell us if the case does not hold?
Yes. The findings say what is defensible now and what is not. Sometimes the answer is that the case is not ready yet, and the report says what would have to change.
Book a fit call
Find out whether a review is the right next step.
A 30-minute call to work out whether a review fits and what it would cover. If it does not, I will say so.
contact@drhanak.com