4 ms·
Yes we do, they don't work in all climates, but we do have a quite well-working approach: Step 1: base-resistand swamp cooler structured packing. Step 2: NaOH
by namibj 4y ago
Yes we do, they don't work in all climates, but we do have a quite well-working approach:
Step 1: base-resistand swamp cooler structured packing.
Step 2: NaOH or KOH solution in water, at equilibrium with air (temperature& humidity).
Step 3: blow air sideways while running liquid down via gravity.
Step 4: regenerate liquid via salt metathesis reaction on column packed with Ca(OH)2.
Step 5: dry-distill the CO2 out of the CaCO3 in a lime kiln (carbon capture for those is easier than for a gas turbine, as they exhaust like around iirc 3~5x as much C02 for each oxygen you feed in, assuming you fuel both with the usual methane).
Step 6: inject the captured CO2 into old gas/oil formations.
Of course this would be better if you combine it with already-needed air handling, for example in central forced air HVAC installations where adjusting the concentration of the lye in step 2 through adding water or vacuum-distilling allows it to humidify/dehumidify the air and where the liquid/air contact can also easily do the heat exchanger task (that strongly basic water shouldn't support growth of any harmful micrograms, I think (for KOH it would typically be half the molarity of a saturated solution, for NaOH more like 80~90%)).
They use similar scrubbing but in dry columns (Ca(OH)2 beads soaked with NaOH solution, then left to drip and packed into canisters) for anesthesia rebreathers to scrub a patient's exhaled CO2, and similar lime/lye cycling in paper Mills (Kraft process; green liquor (sodium carbonate + sodium sulfite) to white liquor (sodium hydroxide+ sodium sulfite) recausticizing).
Assuming negligible cost of the initial wet air scrubbing (via fusing the air handling with HVAC and in the process even providing extra-low-CO2 air), assuming a methane-fired lime kiln, this overall prices should be able to compensates for around 2~4x as much fossil fuel burn in, say, vehicles, than the burn/consumption of the DAC plant.
And much of the process is quite amenable to using solar electricity (with about a day's worth of storage, but part might be able to use thermal storage in rock piles for pre-heating the kiln gas feed), especially as nothing really requires the lime kiln to work in the winter.