Project Description:
Carbon Looping Energy Assessment and Retrofit (CLEAR) evaluates the role of liquid direct air capture in future industrial decarbonization. The project models a KOH–Ca looping DAC process, compares the Aspen model with published reference data, and analyzes the process’s main energy bottleneck: high-temperature calciner regeneration. Heat exchanger network integration, heat pump upgrading of low-quality heat, and concentrating solar thermal heating are explored as ways to reduce the energy burden and assess the limits of process integration. The results show that these strategies can meaningfully improve performance, but DAC remains conditional on continued process development and is likely most relevant for future hard-to-abate utilization pathways, such as sustainable aviation fuel.
