Direct air capture of CO2 for solar fuel production in flow

Sayan Kar, Dongseok Kim, Ariffin Bin Mohamad Annuar, Bidyut Bikash Sarma, Michael Stanton, Erwin Lam, Subhajit Bhattacharjee, Suvendu Karak, Heather F. Greer and Erwin Reisner ()
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Sayan Kar: University of Cambridge
Dongseok Kim: University of Cambridge
Ariffin Bin Mohamad Annuar: University of Cambridge
Bidyut Bikash Sarma: University of Cambridge
Michael Stanton: University of Cambridge
Erwin Lam: University of Cambridge
Subhajit Bhattacharjee: University of Cambridge
Suvendu Karak: University of Cambridge
Heather F. Greer: University of Cambridge
Erwin Reisner: University of Cambridge

Nature Energy, 2025, vol. 10, issue 4, 448-459

Abstract: Abstract Direct air capture is an emerging technology to decrease atmospheric CO2 levels, but it is currently costly and the long-term consequences of CO2 storage are uncertain. An alternative approach is to utilize atmospheric CO2 on-site to produce value-added renewable fuels, but current CO2 utilization technologies predominantly require a concentrated CO2 feed or high temperature. Here we report a gas-phase dual-bed direct air carbon capture and utilization flow reactor that produces syngas (CO + H2) through on-site utilization of air-captured CO2 using light without requiring high temperature or pressure. The reactor consists of a bed of solid silica-amine adsorbent to capture aerobic CO2 and produce CO2-free air; concentrated light is used to release the captured CO2 and convert it to syngas over a bed of a silica/alumina-titania-cobalt bis(terpyridine) molecular–semiconductor photocatalyst. We use the oxidation of depolymerized poly(ethylene terephthalate) plastics as the counter-reaction. We envision this technology to operate in a diurnal fashion where CO2 is captured during night-time and converted to syngas under concentrated sunlight during the day.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01714-y

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