Research facility for capturing CO₂ from ambient air (Direct Air Capture)

In collaboration with the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), PlasmaAir AG planned, built and commissioned a research facility for capturing CO₂ directly from ambient air. The facility produces up to 10 kg/h of concentrated CO₂ and scales up the Direct Air Capture technology developed at ZSW by a factor of 10 compared with the previous demonstration plant.

INITIAL SITUATION

Since 2019, ZSW has operated a demonstration plant (DAC1) with a capacity of around 1 kg/h of CO₂, which provided proof of the basic feasibility of Direct Air Capture technology. For the next stage of development, the technology was to be scaled up by a factor of 10 and equipped with suitable measurement technology so that it could serve as a basis for further process optimisation.

OUR SOLUTION

Based on ZSW's specification, PlasmaAir AG has developed a flexible, mobile research facility:

The absorption unit captures CO₂ from 40,000 m³/h of ambient air using a packed-bed scrubber with an aqueous polyethyleneimine solution as the absorption medium.
The absorber is designed to allow both vertical and horizontal airflow to be investigated, enabling a direct comparison of capture rates at identical residence times.
A separate desorption unit in its own technical container thermally releases the CO₂; multistage heat recovery keeps the process's energy consumption low.
All components that come into contact with the absorbent are made of PE or, in the hotter desorption section, stainless steel, to prevent corrosion.
The entire facility is container-based and can be transported as a mobile unit, with PLC control and an interface for ZSW's measurement data acquisition system.