(20a) Direct Air Capture with Membranes for Crop Carbon Enrichment | AIChE

(20a) Direct Air Capture with Membranes for Crop Carbon Enrichment

Authors 

Kolodji, B. - Presenter, Kolodji Corp
Membranes are utilized to perform direct air capture (DAC) by extracting and mildly concentrating the CO2 in air from 400 ppm to over 1200 ppm (a factor of 3 or more increase), and sending this concentrate into low pressure ducting destined for a greenhouse. When atmosphere inside the greenhouse is increased to between 600 and 1200 ppm CO2, a practice known as crop carbon enrichment, the biomass and yield of the crop correspondingly increases. Cotton with crop carbon enrichment, for example, increases in yield by up to 100%, and the water utilization savings can be over 25%. This technology is ideally suited to replace other green house carbon enrichment CO2 sources such as a fit for purpose flue gas generator producing 5% (50,000 ppm) CO2 with natural gas, or a tank truck delivered pressure vessel supplied source costing between $100 and 200 per ton. Another membrane DAC scheme uses a large bank/ array of membranes for possible open air crop carbon enrichment applications.