New system captures carbon dioxide directly from air

The quest to reduce our carbon footprint has driven significant efforts toward developing a system to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, at their source.

Carbon emissions from power plants, industrial refineries, cement factories, and other industries have been the primary target.

These efforts, while impactful, often fall short of addressing the vast amounts of carbon dioxide already present in the atmosphere.

However, imagine if there was a way to scrub these harmful gases directly from our atmosphere.

System to capture carbon dioxide

A team of dedicated researchers at the University of Cincinnati has been pursuing this seemingly elusive goal. Their mission? To master the art of extracting carbon dioxide straight from the atmosphere.

According to team leader Professor Joo-Youp Lee, accomplishing this would be akin to “trying to remove a handful of red ping-pong balls from a football stadium full of white ones.”

The analogy emphasizes the task’s complexity, as the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is remarkably low.

A breakthrough in carbon capture

Despite the challenges, Professor Lee and his students have made significant progress. They have designed an efficient system for capturing carbon dioxide from the air at approximately 420 parts per million.

The beauty of this process, which is called “direct air capture,” is that it can be implemented virtually anywhere.

Power plants and transportation account for about 53% of all carbon dioxide emissions. The remaining emissions are produced by commercial and residential buildings, industry, agriculture, and other human activities.

“Although industrial decarbonization efforts are underway, it’s really hard to implement carbon capture in the remaining sectors,” said Professor Lee.

How the system works

The system uses electricity to separate carbon dioxide. However, it leans towards the use of hot water instead of electricity or steam, making it more energy-efficient than other carbon-capture systems.

To achieve this, the team established a benchtop model. Ambient air is pumped through a canister, which is filled with a honeycomb-like block wrapped with carbon fiber.

This block, designed and fabricated in Lee’s lab, contains individual cells coated with a specially designed adsorbent material that captures carbon dioxide.

When the carbon dioxide levels begin to rise at the block’s outlet, the team knows it is time to heat the structure, freeing the trapped carbon dioxide.

Scaling up the process

The Cincinnati team has successfully repeated this process more than 2,000 times without any decline in efficiency or degradation of the materials.

Professor Lee is optimistic that the process can be extended to 10,000 cycles, which would make the system more economically viable.

The ultimate test came when the team scaled up the project. Inside of a climate-controlled chamber, they built a person-sized canister, which also draws outside air but can manage temperature, humidity, and wind speed variances.

With an expanded system, Professor Lee and his team have their sights set on an industrial-size prototype.

Addressing climate change

Soumitra Payra, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cincinnati, looks forward to a future where this technology will be scrubbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on a large scale.

“I think it’s a great project. We’re doing some real applications that can help the environment,” said Payra.

Professor Lee noted that these systems could be instrumental in addressing climate change – as the demand for electricity is expected to surge in the years ahead.

“Big tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon are supporting this type of research. They will need a lot of energy to run their data centers,” he said.

“In the carbon tax credit market, the more electricity you use, the more carbon dioxide you emit. So they’re buying carbon tax credits, which support the development of these carbon-capture technologies.”

Progress in carbon capture technology

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the research has made significant strides in advancing carbon capture technology development.

The team’s innovative system holds the potential to transform the way we combat climate change, offering a scalable and energy-efficient solution to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Professor Lee is hoping the DOE will continue to support his plans to develop an industrial-size prototype.

“Our technology has proven to reduce the heat required for the desorption by 50%. That’s a really big improvement,” said Lee. “By using half of the energy, we can separate out carbon dioxide more efficiently. And we can make the cycle longer and longer.”

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