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Water management and heat integration in direct air capture systems

Nature Chemical Engineering volume 1, pages 208–215 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Water plays a pivotal role in direct air capture technologies, impacting materials, regeneration processes and product streams. CO2 removal methods, including absorption, adsorption and electrochemical techniques, encounter challenges associated with water, thus reducing their efficacy. Water fluxes into and out of aqueous solvents affect the concentration and overall capture performance. Solid adsorbents co-adsorb water in greater quantities than CO2 and will require effective strategies to address the substantial energy penalty associated with water desorption each cycle. Water-management strategies are imperative for economic viability and minimizing the environmental impact, but the high energy intensity necessitates heat recovery techniques. Feed dehydration can be combined with strategic heat integration of process streams and standard recovery techniques for front-end water management. For back-end approaches, mechanical vapor compression is a viable solution for coupling heat integration with water management, and we highlight potential heat recovery benefits of three implementation methods. Further research into variable climate conditions and water quality impacts is essential for the success of direct air capture technologies.

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Fig. 1: Types of DAC process, with water and heat inputs highlighted.
Fig. 2: Temperature swing adsorption with no water management.
Fig. 3: Front-end engineering strategies for water management with heat integration.
Fig. 4: Back-end engineering strategies for water management with heat integration.

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Acknowledgements

H.E.H. thanks the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program for financial support. This research was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy of the US Department of Energy under award no. DEAR0001414. We thank C. W. Jones (Georgia Institute of Technology) for useful discussions on this topic.

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  1. School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Hannah E. Holmes, Matthew J. Realff & Ryan P. Lively

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  1. Hannah E. Holmes
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Contributions

All authors contributed to discussions, analysis, and review and editing of the manuscript. R.P.L. contributed to conceptualization and visualization, M.J.R. to conceptualization and formal analysis, and H.E.H. to visualization, formal analysis and writing of the original draft.

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Correspondence to Matthew J. Realff or Ryan P. Lively.

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Nature Chemical Engineering thanks Costas Tsouris and Tao Wang for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Holmes, H.E., Realff, M.J. & Lively, R.P. Water management and heat integration in direct air capture systems. Nat Chem Eng 1, 208–215 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-024-00032-6

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