Thread by @geoengineering1

🚨Researchers at the KAIST and the @MIT have developed a new fiber-based material that can capture CO2 directly from the air using only small amounts of electricity, potentially lowering the barriers to large-scale deployment of direct air capture (#DAC) technology.

DETAILS🧵1/8

2/ DAC systems, which remove CO2 directly from ambient air, have long been hindered by their high energy requirements.

With atm CO₂ concentrations at less than 400ppm, vast volumes of air must be processed, typically requiring large amounts of heat.

3/ The joint team, led by Professor Ko Dong-yeon of KAIST & Professor T. Alan Hatton of MIT, overcame this limitation by designing an electrically conductive fiber adsorbent (ethylenediamine EDA-Y zeolite/cellulose acetate (CA) fiber) that heats itself through Joule heating.

4/ The material can reach 110 degrees Celsius in just 80 seconds using a low voltage of 3 volts — roughly equivalent to charging a smartphone.

5/ The fiber is coated with a 3mm thick layer of silver nanowires & nanoparticle composites, creating a porous structure that allows CO2 molecules to pass through efficiently while enabling rapid, uniform heating.

6/ When connected in parallel, the fibers’ resistance drops below 1 ohm, demonstrating scalability for larger systems.

7/ In real-world tests, the material captured & released CO2 at purities above 95%.

Because it operates entirely on electricity, it could be powered by renewable sources such as solar & wind energy, making it a promising fit for decarbonization strategies.

📝For more details, read the study entitled "Design of Electrified Fiber Sorbents for Direct Air Capture with Electrically-Driven Temperature Vacuum Swing Adsorption" here:


🧵8/8 #DirectAirCapture #CDRadvanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad…

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