Preliminary Design and Analysis of a Photovoltaic-Powered Direct Air Capture System for a Residential Building

Anwar Hamdan Al Assaf, Odi Fawwaz Alrebei, Laurent M. Le Page, Luai El-Sabek, Bushra Obeidat, Katerina Kaouri, Hamed Abufares and Abdulkarem I. Amhamed ()
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Anwar Hamdan Al Assaf: Department of Aviation Sciences, Amman Arab University, Amman 11953, Jordan
Odi Fawwaz Alrebei: Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha 34110, Qatar
Laurent M. Le Page: Oxford Thermofluids Institute, Oxford University, Oxford OX2 OES, UK
Luai El-Sabek: Lean Construction Institute—Qatar, Doha 23850, Qatar
Bushra Obeidat: College of Architecture and Design, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan
Katerina Kaouri: School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4AG, UK
Hamed Abufares: Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha 34110, Qatar
Abdulkarem I. Amhamed: Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha 34110, Qatar

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: To promote the adoption of Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems, this paper proposes and tests a photovoltaic-powered DAC system in a generic residential building located in Qatar. The proposed DAC system can efficiently reduce CO 2 concentration in a living space, thus providing an incentive to individuals to adopt it. The ventilation performance of the building is determined using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, undertaken with ANSYS-CFD. The CFD model was validated using microclimate-air quality dataloggers. The simulated velocity was 1.4 m/s and the measured velocity was 1.35 m/s, which corresponds to a 3.5% error. The system decarbonizes air supplied to the building by natural ventilation or ventilation according to the ASHRAE standards. Furthermore, the performance of the photovoltaic system is analyzed using the ENERGYPLUS package of the Design Builder software. We assume that 75% of CO 2 is captured. In addition, a preliminary characterization of the overall system’s performance is determined. It is determined that the amount of CO 2 captured by the system is 0.112 tones/year per square meter of solar panel area. A solar panel area of 19 m 2 is required to decarbonize the building with natural ventilation, and 27 m 2 is required in the case of ventilation according to the ASHRAE standard.

Keywords: direct air capture systems; carbon capture and storage; energy analysis; computational fluid dynamics analysis; living space (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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