Research Team: Manya Ranjan, Howard Herzog, and Jerry Meldon (Tufts)
Sponsor: Carbon Sequestration Initiative
Summary:
The project looks at the thermodynamic and economic feasibility of capturing CO2 directly from air by industrial methods. Technically speaking, this process is not a novel one; it has been done industrially since early 1930s in the air separation process, as CO2 needed to be removed to avoid freezing during the cryogenic separation process. Also, biological process remove CO2 from air (e.g., trees take in CO2 for photosynthesis). However, large-scale removal of CO2 from air by industrial processes as a climate change mitigation strategy presents significant economic and technical challenges. This project assesses the feasibility of this idea.
Publications:
Ranjan, M. and H. Herzog, "Feasibility of Air Capture," presented at the 10th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September (2010). <PDF>
Ranjan, M., "Feasibility of Air Capture," M.I.T. Masters Thesis, June (2010). <PDF>
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Research