DAC - Direct Air Capture
TDA’s DAC process uses a high capacity and highly stable solid sorbent to remove the CO2 from air. TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) proposes to develop a new class of sorbents to remove CO2 selectively and with high capacity directly from air. The new adsorbent will tolerate moisture and work effectively at the low CO2 concentrations present in air.
Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are a significant risk to global climate. The atmospheric CO2 concentration has surpassed 400 ppm on several occasions since 2013, an increase of 100 ppm since pre-industrial revolution levels. The removal of CO2 from the atmosphere via direct air capture (DAC) is considered as an alternative to the post-combustion capture systems that can remove CO2 from the flue gases of industrial point sources. Unlike other carbon capture technologies, DAC has the advantage of not being directly linked to the existing energy infrastructure that generates the CO2, achieving mitigation irrespective of where and how emissions occur. For example, half of today’s emissions come from distributed or mobile sources (e.g. houses and cars) that are difficult to capture at the source. However, because DAC deals with low CO2 concentrations rather than concentrated streams the cost of capture is expected to be higher.
Although several methods for CO2 separation are applicable to existing coal-fired power plants, there are not many commercial installations of direct air capture. Even the ones available in the market have significant drawbacks, including low efficiency and increased capital and operating costs that dramatically increase the cost of CO2 captured. The current commercial technology for CO2 capture from power plants is amine scrubbers, which reduce the efficiency of the power plants by more than 35% compared to no carbon capture case while increasing the cost of electricity (COE) by more than 50%. Alkali carbonates and hydroxides have been explored both as solvents and supported on solid sorbents for use in DAC. However, these undergo a chemical reaction and their energy requirement for regeneration is significantly greater than that of the amines. Unlike the conventional technologies, TDA’s sorbent combines a high separation capability with minimal energy usage and greatly reduces the cost and power needed to capture CO2 from low concentration sources.
TDA Research, Inc. proposes to develop adsorption-based process to directly remove CO2 from air. The new process uses a unique adsorbent that can effectively remove CO2 at very low concentrations (i.e., 400 ppmv). A mild temperature/concentration swing will be employed to regenerate the sorbent that will enable the recovery of CO2 as a concentrated product. The sorbent will be housed in a unique gas-solid contactor that is designed to minimize the pressure drop and the associated parasitic losses (which is essential for the Direct Capture Systems).
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