Exploring novel gas-liquid contacting concepts for Direct Air Capture

Project Lead:

Overview:

Capture of CO2 from air (Direct Air Capture – DAC) require capture agents, equipment and processes that can separate CO2 at very low concentration levels (~400 ppm). This results in direct air capture technologies facing significant cost challenges that can be related their high energy requirement and large equipment size. The large energy requirement stems from both the regeneration of the capture agents and the movement of large amounts of air through the capture devices. The DAC technology investigated in this project uses liquid absorbents. This type of technology is the leading technology for most CO2-capture applications, but needs to be adapted to enable DAC applications.

The research in this project will focus on innovative systems that could significantly reduce costs by reducing energy requirements and/or investment costs. It will consider the use of natural flows, e.g. through convection, to drive down energy requirements for air movement or use “free” air flows to contact air with the absorption liquids. Additionally it will investigate the possibility of using or repurposing of existing equipment, such as natural draft cooling towers, or existing processes, such as air conditioning, for DAC purposes. The ultimate aim is to realise a step-change in costs for liquid-absorbent based DAC systems.

Team Members: