Scaling Carbon Removal to Gigaton Capacity using Pressurized Direct Air Capture

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Offers a novel engineering approach to DAC that challenges the current focus on materials and solvents.

🏢実務担当者:Provides a blueprint for scaling DAC using pressurized systems and existing industrial components.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the potential for gigaton-scale carbon removal using mature technologies, informing investment and regulation.

Direct Air Capture (DAC) has the potential to roll back the effects of human-induced carbon emissions on our global climate. DAC technologies essentially extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to sequester it underground. The capturing process remains expensive due to the dilute concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere. Current research primarily focuses on developing novel materials and solvents that can effectively reduce the energy requirements of the process. However, existing literature indicates that we have reached the minimum possible energy needed to capture CO 2 from the atmosphere. Instead, we present a new method that centers around maximizing the amount of air being treated. This process operates at high pressure to reduce contactor size by 70x, the main component of DAC facilities. It also delivers over 3100x better performance by increasing absorption capacity by ~7x and absorption rate by ~450x. The recommended solvent mixture is sourced from highly produced chemicals that are resistant to oxygen degradation. Our proposed solution leverages mature technologies that are highly integrated, so that it could be scaled to reach gigaton capacity. The next generation of DAC systems will need to focus on advancing turbomachinery and membrane technologies to achieve ultra-low CO 2 removal costs.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.15002130/v1first seen 2026-05-17 06:32:35