Enabling Direct Air Capture of CO2 through efficient and stable sorbent materials

Direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide is necessary to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Unlike other CO2 methods, DAC can capture emissions from mobile sources like the transport sector, not just from point sources like power plants. Sorbents for DAC need high capacity and fast kinetics for sorption and desorption to be able to efficiently remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Additionally sorbents need to be regenerable with minimal energy requirement, keeping its kinetics and capacity efficient and stable over hundreds of cycles. Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) supported on carbon has been shown to be a promising capture materials however property-performance relationships for these materials are lacking thus hampering the rational design of new capture systems. In this research I will investigate the role of support polarity and K2CO3 particle size on sorption behaviour (sorption/desorption rates, stability). In addition the role of sorption/desorption conditions (i.e. concentration of water, temperature) will be investigated. All this information will ultimately result in kinetic models which will pave the way for the design of improved DAC devices.