Perspective - the need and prospects for negative emission technologies - direct air capture through the lens of current sorption process development

Expanding the Library of Ions for Moisture-Swing Carbon Capture

Developing materials that can more efficiently and cheaply capture carbon dioxide from ambient atmospheric conditions is essential for improving negative emission technologies. This study builds on the promising moisture-swing modality for direct air capture of carbon dioxide by investigating the use of several new anions─orthosilicate, borate, pyrophosphate, tripolyphosphate, and dibasic phosphate─that when introduced into ion-exchange resins allow for the cyclable capture of CO2 under dry conditions and its release under wet conditions. These ions, as well as many others that failed to show moisture-swing performance, are tested and directly compared thermodynamically and kinetically to understand their differences. This includes the use of analytical approaches new to the carbon capture field, such as the correlation of adsorption isotherms to moisture-swing performance, the use of phase lag kinetics, the examination of the humidity-carbon capture hysteresis of the sorbents, and the precise quantification of ion loading using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. Phosphate dibasic was found to have the largest mass-normalized CO2 moisture-swing capacity, whereas phosphate tribasic had the best performance when factoring in kinetics, and pyrophosphate had the highest swing capacity when normalizing on a per-ion or per-unit-charge basis. This work not only sheds light on ways to improve DAC but also provides insights pertinent to the advancement of gas separation, negative emission technologies, and sorbent materials.

Direct Air Capture of CO2 Using Amine/Alumina Sorbents at Cold Temperature

Rising CO2 emissions are responsible for increasing global temperatures causing climate change. Significant efforts are underway to develop amine-based sorbents to directly capture CO2 from air (called direct air capture (DAC)) to combat the effects of climate change. However, the sorbents' performances have usually been evaluated at ambient temperatures (25 °C) or higher, most often under dry conditions. A significant portion of the natural environment where DAC plants can be deployed experiences temperatures below 25 °C, and ambient air always contains some humidity. In this study, we assess the CO2 adsorption behavior of amine (poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) and tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA)) impregnated into porous alumina at ambient (25 °C) and cold temperatures (-20 °C) under dry and humid conditions. CO2 adsorption capacities at 25 °C and 400 ppm CO2 are highest for 40 wt% TEPA-incorporated γ-Al2O3 samples (1.8 mmol CO2/g sorbent), while 40 wt % PEI-impregnated γ-Al2O3 samples exhibit moderate uptakes (0.9 mmol g-1). CO2 capacities for both PEI- and TEPA-incorporated γ-Al2O3 samples decrease with decreasing amine content and temperatures. The 40 and 20 wt % TEPA sorbents show the best performance at -20 °C under dry conditions (1.6 and 1.1 mmol g-1, respectively). Both the TEPA samples also exhibit stable and high working capacities (0.9 and 1.2 mmol g-1) across 10 cycles of adsorption-desorption (adsorption at -20 °C and desorption conducted at 60 °C). Introducing moisture (70% RH at -20 and 25 °C) improves the CO2 capacity of the amine-impregnated sorbents at both temperatures. The 40 wt% PEI, 40 wt % TEPA, and 20 wt% TEPA samples show good CO2 uptakes at both temperatures. The results presented here indicate that γ-Al2O3 impregnated with PEI and TEPA are potential materials for DAC at ambient and cold conditions, with further opportunities to optimize these materials for the scalable deployment of DAC plants at different environmental conditions.

Recent advances in direct air capture by adsorption

Significant progress has been made in direct air capture (DAC) in recent years. Evidence suggests that the large-scale deployment of DAC by adsorption would be technically feasible for gigatons of CO₂ capture annually. However, great efforts in adsorption-based DAC technologies are still required. This review provides an exhaustive description of materials development, adsorbent shaping, in situ characterization, adsorption mechanism simulation, process design, system integration, and techno-economic analysis of adsorption-based DAC over the past five years; and in terms of adsorbent development, affordable DAC adsorbents such as amine-containing porous materials with large CO₂ adsorption capacities, fast kinetics, high selectivity, and long-term stability under ultra-low CO₂ concentration and humid conditions. It is also critically important to develop efficient DAC adsorptive processes. Research and development in structured adsorbents that operate at low-temperature with excellent CO₂ adsorption capacities and kinetics, novel gas-solid contactors with low heat and mass transfer resistances, and energy-efficient regeneration methods using heat, vacuum, and steam purge is needed to commercialize adsorption-based DAC. The synergy between DAC and carbon capture technologies for point sources can help in mitigating climate change effects in the long-term. Further investigations into DAC applications in the aviation, agriculture, energy, and chemical industries are required as well. This work benefits researchers concerned about global energy and environmental issues, and delivers perspective views for further deployment of negative-emission technologies.