Climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere is one of the most pressing issues facing our society. The acceleration of global warming leads to disastrous climates, wildfires, storms, and floods. Climate change demands that we develop new technological solutions to reverse the current trajectory of carbon dioxide emissions.
The direct capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air (Direct Air Capture, DAC) is one of the various negative emissions technologies recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to keep global warming below 1.5℃. Widespread deployment of DAC technology is necessary to mitigate and eliminate what are referred to as traditional carbon emissions or historical emissions. Only by extracting a significant amount of CO2 equivalent to current global emissions can we effectively reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Current DAC technologies primarily rely on adsorbent systems, where CO2 is captured in a solution or on the surface of porous solids coated with compounds of high CO2 affinity. These processes are currently quite expensive, although costs are expected to decrease with large-scale development and deployment of the technology.
The ability of membranes to separate CO2 has been well demonstrated, and their practicality in industrial processes has been confirmed. Unfortunately, their efficiency is not satisfactory for the practical operation of DAC.
In a recent paper, researchers from the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER), Kyushu University, and Japan NanoMembrane Technologies Inc. discussed the potential of membrane-based DAC (m-DAC) by leveraging the advantages of membrane state DAC and advanced organic polymer membrane performance. Based on process simulations, they indicated that competitive energy costs could be achieved for the target performance of m-DAC. The results showed that a multi-stage application separation process could pre-concentrate CO2 in the air (0.04%) to 40%.
This possibility and combination of membranes with advanced CO2 conversion rates could lead to realistic means to unlock a circular CO2 economy. Based on this finding, the Kyushu University team launched a government-supported Moonshot research and development program (Program Manager: Dr. Shigenori Fujikawa). The main goal of this program is to directly capture CO2 from the atmosphere using membranes and subsequently convert it into valuable materials.
Since 2020, the construction and development of CCUS industrial demonstration projects in China have rapidly progressed, with projects gradually transitioning from single-stage technical applications to comprehensive multi-stage integrated applications. The scale of demonstration continues to expand, and the application scenarios are significantly increasing, leading to the gradual formation of new industrial formats for CO2 industrial applications.
Looking towards 2060, CCUS technology will become a new opportunity for green industries. According to authoritative sources, the global CCUS industry scale could reach several trillion dollars, with China’s CCUS investment scale expected to reach 3.5 trillion yuan by 2060, indicating a very broad market prospect. Seizing the opportunity to fully utilize the advantages of China’s manufacturing industry clusters and robust application technologies, while drawing on international advanced technologies, to build an efficient and sustainable CCUS industrial system is key to leading the future development of carbon capture technology in Asia and even globally.
Source: Carbon Neutral Circle
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