Abstract
The extraction of CO2 from ambient air, or direct air capture (DAC), is a crucial negative CO2 emissions technology with great potential for contributing to the mitigation of global warming and climate change. However, nearly all published research on DAC has been conducted under indoor temperature conditions: 20 to 30 °C. In contrast, the future global implementation requires DAC to be operational across a wide expanse of geographical areas, in which the local temperatures can vary between −30 to 50 °C. Similarly, the absolute humidity can vary from ∼0 to 84 g/m3 in various locations. Due to the massive amount of air that would be processed, it may be impractical to preheat or dehumidify the air before the CO2 separation. Therefore, it is important to develop DAC materials with good performance at realistic outdoor conditions, especially at sub-ambient conditions: −30 to 20 °C. In addition to material development, system-level studies at sub-ambient conditions are also needed for the DAC processes to reach optimal designs, which may be very different from those at ambient conditions. In this perspective article, we first assess the literature to identify the technical gaps that need to be filled for DAC to be applicable at realistic outdoor conditions. We then suggest additional research directions needed for DAC to be viable under varied conditions from the perspective of materials and system designs. For materials, we discuss the expected physical and chemical property changes for the sorbents when the temperature or humidity reaches extremes within their range, and how that will impact performance. Similarly, for system design, we indicate how varied conditions will impact performance and how these changes will impact process optimization.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Jason Lee for providing the initial sub-ambient CO2 adsorption database and the Georgia Tech Direct Air Capture Center, DirACC. The authors also thank David Elenowitz for fruitful discussions concerning all aspects of DAC. The authors furthermore acknowledge all researchers who have contributed to the development of DAC technology to date. This research was supported by National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, under award no. DE-FE-FE0031952, and Zero Carbon Partners, LLC.
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Christopher W. Jones Georgia Institute of Technology School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Professor Jones is the John F. Brock III School Chair and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 2000 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005 and Professor in 2008. He served as Associate Vice President for Research from 2013–2019. Dr. Jones leads a research group that works on materials, catalysis and adsorption. He is known for his extensive work on materials that extract CO2 from ultra-dilute mixtures such as ambient air, which are key components of direct air capture (DAC) technologies. He served on the US National Academies Consensus Study on Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration in 2017–2018, focusing on DAC. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal, ACS Catalysis, and currently serves as the founding Editor-in-Chief of JACS Au. Jones is a fellow of the ACS and AAAS.
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Research needs targeting direct air capture of carbon dioxide: Material & process performance characteristics under realistic environmental conditions
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Kong, F., Rim, G., Song, M. et al. Research needs targeting direct air capture of carbon dioxide: Material & process performance characteristics under realistic environmental conditions. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 39, 1–19 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-021-0976-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-021-0976-0