Direct Air Capture (DAC) is critical in efforts to combat climate change by removing carbon dioxide from air. A gas-liquid contactor for air and aqueous solvent is considered a promising technology for scalable, continuous DAC processes. However, to have an impact on climate goals, energy-efficient and cost-effective gas-liquid contactor systems still need to be developed. In this work, we evaluate various gas-liquid contactor materials with respect to CO2 capture efficiency, pressure drop, wettability by the solvent, and cost. A bench-scale cross-flow prototype contactor unit was designed for various packing materials such as 3D-printed structured packing, commercially available structured packing, and hybrid packing to maximize mass-transfer efficiency for a compact DAC process. We found that the hybrid packing, which combines structured and random packing elements in a space of 30 × 30 × 24 cm3, yields up to ~55% CO2 removal and a capture rate of ~0.5 kg CO2/day. This rate is achieved by high contact surface area with good solvent packing wettability. The results indicate that random packing combined with structured packing may offer good properties for a highly effective DAC process.

An effective air-liquid contactor for CO2 direct air capture using aqueous solvent

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