Principal investigators: Mohammad Islam and Paul Salvador
University: Carnegie Mellon University
Industry partner: RoCo
Societal decarbonization requires a portfolio of successful technological approaches, including those addressing carbon capture, utilization, and storage. Direct air capture (DAC) describes the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from ambient air. Unfortunately, the cost of carbon ($/tonne-CO2) is too high for all current technologies, due to materials degradation and energy inputs (high costs), as well as low cycle capacities and times (low CO2 output).
We propose to develop novel materials for an integrated system using an electrothermal swing adsorption (ETSA) cycle for DAC. Aerogels made from single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be decorated with various sorbents appropriate for CO2 DAC. The sorbent decorated SWCNT aerogel lowers carbon capture prices through its extraordinarily large surface areas that allow it to have full utilization of decorated sorbents, can be rapidly heated via Joule (electrothermal) heating with low energy inputs to the desorption temperature for CO2, and minimize degradation related to coarsening and chemical deterioration.