The development prospects and trends of the new energy industry

The core idea of this article: Direct air capture technology can capture CO2 emissions from distributed sources, as a kind of carbon dioxide capture technology, the development prospect is better.

Policy to accelerate the development of carbon neutral action plan, promote the development of carbon capture technology

Carbon neutral refers to the increase in carbon absorption through afforestation, energy saving and emission reduction methods, carbon absorption and carbon emissions offset to achieve carbon neutral. Carbon peak is that carbon dioxide emissions no longer grow, after reaching the peak and then slowly reduce, is the stage that must be passed before carbon neutral.In September 2020, at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, China proposed that carbon dioxide emissions strive to peak before 2030, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060.In December 2020, the central economic work conference will be In December 2020, the central economic work conference will "do a good job of carbon peak, carbon neutral work" as one of the key tasks in 2021.In March 2021, the government work report pointed out that it will formulate an action plan to peak carbon emissions by 2030, promote the optimization of the industrial structure and energy structure, and vigorously develop new energy sources.

Carbon neutral target background, China to accelerate the development and application of low-carbon technology promotion. Among them, carbon dioxide carbon capture, utilization and storage technology (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage, CCUS), refers to the separation of CO2 from industrial or related energy sources, and then put into the new production process for recycling or storage.

Direct air CO2 capture technology can capture CO2 emissions from distributed sources

From the point of view of the capture link, according to the sequence of carbon capture and combustion process, the traditional carbon capture methods mainly include pre-combustion capture, oxygen-enriched combustion, and post-combustion capture and so on. Direct air capture (DAC) technology refers to the use of chemical adsorbents, air as the CO2 transport medium, directly from the low concentration of gas partial pressure (40Pa) under the enrichment of CO2 technology. In recent years, as researchers continue to develop methods and materials for DAC, DAC technology is now recognized as a viable CO2 reduction technology.

Currently, carbon capture and storage (CCS) mainly disposes of and captures CO2 emitted from industrial stationary sources, and pays little attention to CO2 from distributed sources, which accounts for nearly 50% of the total CO2 emissions. Airborne direct CO2 capture not only captures CO2 from millions of small fossil fuel combustion devices and hundreds of millions of transportation vehicles, but also effectively reduces the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Adsorption system is an important part of DAC technology, and startups are accelerating their research and development

At present, the DAC process generally consists of 3 parts: an air capture module, an absorbent or adsorbent regeneration module, and a CO2 storage module. The CO2 in the air is captured by an adsorbent, and after completing the capture, the adsorbent is regenerated by changing the heat, pressure, or temperature of the adsorbent, and the regenerated adsorbent is used again for CO2 capture, while the pure CO2 is stored.

Currently, more than 30 startups, research institutes, and research and development consortiums around the world are working on DAC technology, and the startups have established 19 test sites to provide experimental data for the research and to correct the direction of the research. Among them, Climeworks, Global Thermostat, and Carbon Engineering are leading the way with their own test sites and are in the early stages of commercialization; Carbon Engineering's adsorbent type is liquid adsorption, while Climeworks and Global Thermostat are solid adsorbents. Thermostat are solid adsorbents.