KAIST announced on the 29th that a research team led by Professor Go Dong-yeon of the Department of Bio and Chemical Engineering has developed a technology capable of efficiently capturing carbon dioxide in the air with 95% purity.
The increase in carbon dioxide concentration has raised the Earth’s average temperature by 1.2 degrees, leading to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and ecosystem destruction.
To capture the minute amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere (0.04%), an efficient adsorbent and system that can effectively separate carbon dioxide are required. The research team maximized the performance of the carbon dioxide capture device by developing an adsorbent integrated with an electric heating source.
The adsorbent developed by the team has a large surface area for efficient carbon dioxide adsorption, allowing for mass production and reuse. Through the use of the electric heating source in the adsorbent, pure carbon dioxide is obtained without the need for external heat energy, making it operable with just electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
At the current experimental scale in the laboratory, the system can process approximately 1-3kg of carbon dioxide per day. The research is expected to be scaled up to capture more than 1 ton per day, and commercialization is planned through the student startup company ‘Sorv’, led by Dr. Kim Gyu-nam, who spearheaded the research.
Dr. Kim Gyu-nam stated that the technology could be applied to large carbon dioxide emission sources such as thermal power plants, cement factories, and steel plants.