Thermal removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere: energy requirements and scaling issues

Ted Hippel ()
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Ted Hippel: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Climatic Change, 2018, vol. 148, issue 4, No 4, 501 pages

Abstract: Abstract I conduct a system-level study of direct air capture of CO2 using techniques from thermal physics. This system relies on a combination of an efficient heat exchanger, radiative cooling, and refrigeration, all at industrial scale and operated in environments at low ambient temperatures. While technological developments will be required for such a system to operate efficiently, those developments rest on a long history of refrigeration expertise and technology, and they can be developed and tested at modest scale. I estimate that the energy required to remove CO2 via this approach is comparable to direct air capture by other techniques. The most challenging aspect of building a system that could remove 1 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year is the power demand of 112 to 420 GW during the wintertime operational period.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-018-2208-0

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