The climate of our planet has always changed and fluctuated. However, industrialization has expelled copious amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering climate change and global warming. This warming has resulted in a dramatic rise in Earth’s temperature over a short period of time. If left unchecked, we will certainly face disaster.
There is a need to develop solutions that stabilize and even reverse the rise in CO2 concentrations. Many industrial processes have been evaluated to capture CO2 from their sources, such as power plants, steel mills, and petroleum refineries. However, more must be done to offset CO2 emissions from everyday human activity, such as driving automobiles and heating and cooling buildings. Capturing CO2 directly from the air (DAC) can offset CO2 emissions and stabilize the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. However, capturing CO2 from the air is not trivial.
We have developed advanced technologies to remove CO2 by highly selectivity membranes and new solvent technology. These technologies do not work well for DAC due to low CO2 concentration in the air, so new concepts are necessary along with regeneration techniques. In addition, the capture cost needs to be extremely low, and ideally, the system should be standalone.
We devised a smart solution to capture CO2 using a metal hydroxide solution that reacts with CO2 to give metal bicarbonates. Using a simple acid, we can release CO2 and form a salt regenerated into acid and the metal hydroxide in an industrial Electro Dialysis Bipolar Membrane (EDBM). Using EDBM means no thermal energy is needed, and the system can be integrated with renewable energy sources.
Figure 1: Complete system envisioned with the Leaf-Like air Contractor with energy generations and EDBM module.
Figure 2: Schematics of the Leaf-Like liquid air contractor pushed with air while capturing CO2
The most exciting part of our proposed technology is the unique liquid-gas contractor technology mimics a leaf with a channeled sandwich structure. This “Leaf-like” contactor not only captures CO2 but also uses wind energy to generate the power required for EDBM. This design makes it possible to conceive a completely self-sufficient system. Based on our current conservative analysis, we estimate the capture cost to be <$50/ton CO2, which is significantly lower than any other DAC system.
The team plans to enter the Carbon X-prize recently offered by Elon Musk.
This technology is further developed by Carbon Blade Corporation