Background
Negative emissions technologies (NETs) will play an important role in achieving net-zero, by off-setting residual and/or decentralised carbon emissions. A leading option for achieving negative emissions is Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, which removes CO2 directly from the atmosphere through an engineered chemical separation process.
Industrial clusters provide specific strategic benefits for DAC processes through the use of shared CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, and access to shared resource usage with the availability of both energy and water. This project will explore the operation of DAC units integrated within the UK industrial clusters under realistic atmospheric conditions and subject to the availability of shared resources.
Associated Outputs
Dr Ronny Pini
Principal Investigator
Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
Project Team
Imperial College London:
Dr Maria Papathanasiou, Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering
Adam Ward, Department of Chemical Engineering
Aim
We will assess the role of adsorption-based DAC processes in the context of the UK energy system. Specifically, we aim to:
- Conduct a model-based assessment for the design and operation of DAC units within UK industrial clusters.
- Consider aspects of site-specific variable ambient conditions and resource integration.
- Produce nationwide cluster-specific maps of performance for DAC, including economic assessment of the system performance.
- Provide a roadmap for nationwide deployment of DAC and its integration in the UK energy system.
More Detail
The deployment of DAC processes faces two key challenges:
1) DAC units use ambient air as the feed stream, and so must be designed such that they are robust to seasonal fluctuations in atmospheric conditions (temperature, humidity). For the first time, we will couple the optimisation of DAC units with design tools which consider the operability of the units subject to variability in the atmospheric conditions. We will utilise a dataset of ambient conditions at multiple UK industrial clusters to assess the feasibility of the unit operation under conditions present in our pre-existing industrial centres.
2) Current DAC unit designs are energy intensive. To yield negative emissions, careful attention must be paid to the full scope of emissions associated with the CO2 capture, transport, and storage chain for DAC. For the first time, we will consider the integration of DAC units within industrial clusters to allow for access to shared infrastructure and resources. We will compare performance to stand-alone DAC systems to identify in detail the specific strategic benefits for cluster-integration of DAC units.
Meet the Team
Dr Maria Papathanasiou
Dr Maria Papathanasiou
Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering
Adam Ward
Adam Ward
Imperial College London
Dr Maria Papathanasiou
Dr Maria Papathanasiou
Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering
Adam Ward
Adam Ward
Imperial College London
Case Study
We will assess the deployment of DAC in the context of three UK industrial clusters, the Humber cluster, the Northwest Cluster, and the Scottish Cluster. We will incorporate cluster-specific variability of atmospheric conditions and availability of shared recourses into our analysis to generate a roadmap for deployment of DAC processes at these locations.
Planned Outputs
The project aims to generate the following outputs:
- Provide a comprehensive cluster-by-cluster dataset for variable atmospheric conditions and availability of relevant shared resources.
- Provide tools for technology developers to optimise DAC units in terms of economic efficiency and energy usage.
- Provide a roadmap for deployment of DAC units within the Humber, Northwest, and Scottish clusters.
