Recovering from Industrial Overshoot: Direct Air Capture of CO2
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
In Person or Zoom Presentation
In-Person
Campus
Daytona Beach
Status
Faculty
Faculty/Staff Department
Physical Sciences
Presentation Description/Abstract
Humanity has elevated atmospheric CO2 from a pre-industrial value of 270 ppmv (parts per million by volume) to 426 ppmv, with a current rate of increase of 3.75 ppmv per year. Because somewhat over 80% of humanity's energy consumption is derived from fossil fuels and because it takes decades to meaningfully change energy sources, we expect atmospheric CO2 to rise well past 450 ppmv and drive substantial climate and ecological disruption. This industrial overshoot requires that humanity develop methods to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
We report on-going research to capture atmospheric CO2 using a combination of adsorption and cryogenic cooling. Current work focuses on optimizing the energy demands of this adsorption plus cryogenic approach at laboratory scale. The optimization approach will involve laboratory testing of automatic sensing and actuation algorithms that are designed using physics- and thermodynamics-driven control system design tools. The energy required to remove atmospheric CO2 via our approach may be competitive with direct air capture via previously-established techniques.
Keywords
climate change, direct air capture, adsorption, control systems, cryogenics
Recovering from Industrial Overshoot: Direct Air Capture of CO2
Humanity has elevated atmospheric CO2 from a pre-industrial value of 270 ppmv (parts per million by volume) to 426 ppmv, with a current rate of increase of 3.75 ppmv per year. Because somewhat over 80% of humanity's energy consumption is derived from fossil fuels and because it takes decades to meaningfully change energy sources, we expect atmospheric CO2 to rise well past 450 ppmv and drive substantial climate and ecological disruption. This industrial overshoot requires that humanity develop methods to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
We report on-going research to capture atmospheric CO2 using a combination of adsorption and cryogenic cooling. Current work focuses on optimizing the energy demands of this adsorption plus cryogenic approach at laboratory scale. The optimization approach will involve laboratory testing of automatic sensing and actuation algorithms that are designed using physics- and thermodynamics-driven control system design tools. The energy required to remove atmospheric CO2 via our approach may be competitive with direct air capture via previously-established techniques.