The National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Research and Innovation Center (NETL-RIC) is developing new methods to provide foundational analytical support that ties accomplishments in the laboratory to results in real-world systems. One objective is to identify the most promising carbon capture technology pathways and attributes in terms of cost, performance, and environmental impact. For example, post-combustion carbon capture research and development (R&D) has been generally focused on three technology pathways (membranes, solvents, and sorbents), which provide options to reduce the energy and cost penalties associated with carbon capture. This research focuses on accelerating the development of efficient cost-effective technologies that meet the programmatic goals for carbon capture: to develop transformational technologies that are ready for demonstration by 2030 and that can achieve 95% carbon dioxide (CO2) purity with a cost of less than $30/tonne of CO2 captured. Development efforts are consistent with the overall goal of reducing the time required to develop new carbon capture technologies.