Carbon Capture
Read all of this, please. It's important.
Note: This project has been deprecated and is no longer under active research. I still keep this page up so maybe you can find it useful in your studies. Read the page "Was This Project a Success?" to learn more.
Second note: I released a paper on my project: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18p59EmKheP8YZRrSHv7kxILEd36yUNC7U6RdwxdAVec/edit?usp=sharing.
Carbon capture is the process of removing CO2 from the atmosphere using machines like DAC scrubbers. Carbon capture is not an excuse to keep polluting, but every climate prediction shows that even with a significant reduction of our carbon footprint, carbon capture is still needed to keep some normalcy in our lives (or what's left of it).
Now, onto what I'm doing for this project. At the moment, with my current system, I am just trying to make a proof of concept that shows that the CO2 can be desorbed with water. The capturing part happens, too, it just doesn't happen in the chamber (at the moment). The capturing happens in a fan chamber, though I have plans to integrate it all into one system at one point once the results from desorption seem promising enough. Also, note that this current system is not actually sequestering the carbon. It is simply absorbing and desorbing, with the CO2 just being released back into the atmosphere.
The fundamental workings of this system are headlined by ion exchange resin. When treated with chemicals, like sodium carbonate, this resin can spontaneously capture CO2. If that seems like magic, then this next part must seem out of the world: it can release the CO2 with the addition of just liquid water (dubbed a moisture swing system). This might not seem like much, but I promise, it's pretty important.
The need to release the CO2 is important for two reasons. One, so it can be turned into many high-value products, like carbon fiber or carbon nanotubes (it could also simply be stored underground or injected into basalt). And two, the sorbent can be reused. This step is crucial. Instead of throwing away the $50 sorbent every time, you can reuse it, which lowers the environmental impact and cost. As I said, all you need to do is add water, compared to the regeneration of other common sorbents like Zeolites or calcium carbonate, which need tremendous amounts of heat (upwards of 500 C), and hence energy. And this energy is usually supplied from fossil fuels (though not always) making this system only carbon neutral, and maybe even carbon positive, which proves this an unsustainable approach.
I am doing carbon capture like Professor Tao Wang and Professor Klaus Lackner did. The main study I am basing my work on is this:
Wang, Tao, et al. “Moisture Swing Sorbent for Carbon Dioxide Capture From Ambient Air.” Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 45, no. 15, American Chemical Society, July 2011, pp. 6670–75, doi:10.1021/es201180v.
Also, if you hear me referring to "the sorbent" I am talking about the ion exchange resin. I use the terms interchangeably, along with anion resin, resin, ion resin, and sorbent material.
This section assumes that you have a few prerequisites:
Arduino coding/wiring
Arduino Serial monitor usage
Drills
Hot glue guns
Google Spreadsheets (or Excel)
A little bit of common sense (I'm lacking on that one)
An understanding of what is airtight and what is not
Basic/intermediate chemistry
Basic/intermediate physics
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