Atmospheric CO2 capture for storage or for utilisation
Find out more about subscribing to add all events.
Atmospheric CO2 capture for storage or for utilisation
Tue, 12/03/2024 - 15:00 to 16:00
Location:
Speaker:
Dr. Giulio Santori
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Synopsis:
Atmospheric Carbon Capture technologies represent an incredible feat in separation engineering: a column of atmospheric air with the base of 1 m2 and the height equivalent to the distance between the southernmost and northernmost points in Germany – this is the air that contains 1 tonne of CO2. Removing CO2 from air is arduous but concentrating the CO2 removed is the real challenge. In fact, the concentration of CO2 to high purity (95+%) by a factor of nearly 2300, starting from 410 ppm is extremely energy demanding, regardless of the separation process chosen to accomplish the task. A proper deployment of Atmospheric Carbon Capture technologies implies the absorption of almost the whole renewable energy available in 2050 in case of optimistic scenarios of renewable energy growth. Atmospheric Carbon Capture technologies that can efficiently exploit heat at temperature <50°C are likely to be pivotal in the future energy system as a measure to mitigate the renewable energy shortage. Powering them with ultralow-grade-heat has the double value of exploiting an amount of energy which is currently unaccounted while reducing thermal pollution. If the combination of Atmospheric Carbon Capture+Storage is energy intensive and economically questionable when it relies on carbon credits only, even more is the combination of Atmospheric Carbon Capture+Conversion. However, there are special cases where the combination of Atmospheric Carbon Capture+Conversion can be environmentally and economically sustainable. One of these cases is the production of Ethylene, currently investigated in the Full Spectrum Solar Direct Air Capture and Conversion project (https://soldac-project.eu/) .
Biography:
Dr. Giulio Santori is a Reader at The University of Edinburgh, where he leads the Emerging Sustainable Technologies Laboratory (ESTech-Lab), a forge of innovative zero-carbon and carbon-negative technologies, often powered by ultralow-grade-heat below 50°C, one of the least exploitable type of energy. Despite its vast availability, no process is attractive enough to motivate ultralow-grade heat exploitation, leaving this resource wasted to the environment, a crime in the enduring energy shortage the society is facing. Thermodynamics of ultralow-grade-heat -powered technologies is inescapable; teasing a useful effect out of heat at temperature only 10-20°C higher than ambient is inevitably inefficient. The ESTech-Lab overcomes the challenge by designing cyclic and non-cyclic processes that integrate nanoporous solids, often in combination with ionic interfaces. With nanoporous solids, advanced heat-powered processes can reach efficiencies almost coincident with their Thermodynamic limit. For all members, the ESTech-Lab is a school educating ingenuity and a nurturing environment for the conception and the growth of unanticipated Heat-to-X technologies that can constitute the backbone of a new energy system. Dr. Santori’s approach is centred on applied thermodynamics and engineering design, with expertise and equipment able to span from fundamental data measurement and modelling to prototyping and testing. The most recent research in the ESTech-Lab tackled two global challenges: i) the need to reverse the trend in atmospheric CO2 concentration (10.1016/j.energy.2018.08.090); ii) water scarcity (10.1021/acsami.9b07602). Dr. Santori is a former Marie Curie Fellow in Atmospheric Carbon Capture (2014-2018) and current Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow. He is author of 61 papers in international scientific journals and serves in the editorial board of Carbon Neutrality (Springer Nature).