Department of Energy Invests $72 Million in Carbon Capture Technologies

Carbon Capture/Storage/Use Carbon Dioxide (CO2)Energy (DOE)Federal Agency/Executive Branch Feedstocks Funding/Financing/Investing grants Podcasts R & D Focus

September 12, 2020

Print This Article Share it With Friends

(U.S. Department of Energy) Today(September 1, 2020), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the award of approximately $72 million in federal funding to support the development and advancement of carbon capture technologies under two funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). Under this cost-shared research and development (R&D), DOE is awarding $51 million to nine new projects for coal and natural gas power and industrial sources. DOE is awarding a total of $21 million to 18 projects for technologies that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, a process known as “direct air capture.”

“The projects selected as a part of this research will help us develop the technological solutions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “This is critical to balancing our Nation’s energy use while continuing to lead the world in emissions reductions.”

Through DOE’s Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage R&D Program, the Office of Fossil Energy has a comprehensive portfolio of technological solutions that help keep CO2 emissions out of the atmosphere. Many of these R&D efforts can be applied across both the energy and the industrial sectors.

“The primary mission of our office is to ensure that the United States can continue to rely on its fossil fuel resources for clean and secure energy. The advancement of carbon capture technologies, including direct air capture, contributes to that mission,” said Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg. “Our ultimate goal is to mature these technologies so that they can be commercialized and brought to market.”

Under the first FOA, Capture Research and Development (R&D): Engineering Scale Testing from Coal- and Natural Gas-Based Flue Gas and Initial Engineering Design for Industrial Sources, DOE selected nine projects to receive $51 million for cost-shared R&D. These efforts aim to design initial engineering studies to develop technologies to capture CO2 generated as a byproduct of manufacturing at industrial sites.

DOE also selected 18 projects to receive $21 million under the second FOA, Novel Research and Development for the Direct Capture of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere. These projects will focus on the development of new materials for use in direct air capture and will also complete field testing.

To view the full list of selected projects and their descriptions, click here.

To learn more about the programs within the Office of Fossil Energy, visit the Office of Fossil Energy website. More information about the National Energy Technology Laboratory is available on the NETL website. READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy has selected 18 projects for cost-shared research and development under the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002188, Novel Research and Development for the Direct Capture of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory will manage the selected projects, which are described below:

(1) Direct Air Capture Using Novel Structured Adsorbents

Electricore (Valencia, CA) plans to build and operate a 30 kg per day DAC system that combines Climeworks’ process and hardware with Svante’s transformational structured adsorbent laminate filter, advancing the process and identifying optimization options for this DAC configuration. Field testing will be conducted at a renewable power generation site in California to capture operational data on the novel process and material combination under real conditions. Data will be used to advise techno-economics and life cycle analysis of the technology.

DOE Funding: $2,500,000; Non-DOE Funding: $712,880; Total: $3,212,880

(2) Advanced Integrated Reticular Sorbent-Coated System to Capture CO₂from the Atmosphere

GE Research (Niskayuna, NY) plans to develop an “Advanced Integrated Reticular Sorbent-Coated System to Capture CO₂ from the Atmosphere (AIR2CO₂).” The team’s key objective will be to demonstrate an AIR2CO₂ material system that integrates advanced metal-organic framework sorbents and sorbent-binder slurry coatings to capture and release atmospheric CO₂.

DOE Funding: $799,981; Non-DOE Funding: $199,995; Total: $999,976

(3) MIL-101(Cr)-Amine Sorbents Evaluation Under Realistic Direct Air Capture Conditions

Georgia Tech Research Corporation (Atlanta, GA) plans to develop and test MIL-101(Cr)-based sorbents in the form of powders, in composite polymer/MOF fibers and on the surface of monoliths. The experimental portion of this project will synthesize and characterize powder, fiber, and monolith MIL-101(Cr)-based sorbents. If successful, the development of DAC materials suitable for a more diverse climate spectrum will expand the currently limited development of DAC technology towards a scenario of global deployment.

DOE Funding: $755,166; Non-DOE Funding: $191,482; Total: $946,648

(4) Demonstration of a Continuous-Motion Direct Air Capture System

Global Thermostat Operations, LLC (New York, NY) plans to prototype the unique mechanical components of the proposed continuous-motion system, refine the process steps and supporting plant process equipment, assess the impacts on material lifetime, assess the capital equipment needed and associated cost, and finally delineate key performance indicators. The team’s ultimate goal is to advance the most promising process improvements, where a DAC plant is operated in a continuous fashion rather than a discrete batchwise fashion.

DOE Funding: $2,499,996; Non-DOE Funding: $850,000; Total: $3,349,996

(5) Experimental Demonstration of Alkalinity Concentration Swing for Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide

Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) plans to perform an experimental demonstration of a novel process for capture of CO₂from the air and release into a concentrated CO₂environment. The process involves raising and lowering the alkalinity of an inexpensive alkaline aqueous solution, which changes both the concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon and the partitioning of dissolved inorganic carbon among chemical species within the solution.

DOE Funding: $720,048; Non-DOE Funding: $180,858; Total: $900,906

(6) High-Performance, Hybrid Polymer Membrane for Carbon Dioxide Separation from Ambient Air

InnoSense, LLC (Torrance, CA) plans to develop a highly CO₂-permeable, ultra-thin, and selective hybrid polymer membrane for DAC applications. Researchers will achieve process optimization by understanding the effects of membrane performance (e.g., thickness, permeability, selectivity, etc.) and processing conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, humidity, gas compositions, flow rate, etc.) through lab-scale experiments and process simulation.

DOE Funding: $799,998; Non-DOE Funding: $200,001; Total: $999,999

(7) Transformational Sorbent Materials for a Substantial Reduction in the Energy Requirement for Direct Air Capture of CO₂

InnoSepra, LLC (Middlesex, NJ) plans to utilize computational tools, materials characterization, and lab-scale testing to optimize previously identified transformational materials to determine their performance under DAC conditions. The overall objectives of the work are to demonstrate that the materials can lead to a substantial reduction in the energy requirement for direct capture of CO₂from air compared to current state-of-the-art DAC processes.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $1,000,000

(8) A Combined Water and CO₂ Direct Air Capture System

IWVC, LLC (Venice, CA) plans to design, manufacture, and field test a combined water and CO₂ DAC system at a field site located on the San Diego State University Brawley campus. The team’s ultimate goal is to demonstrate the technical and economic performance of a transformational technology that simultaneously captures CO₂ and water from the air.

DOE Funding: $2,500,000; Non-DOE Funding: $672,000; Total: $3,172,000

(9) TRAPS: Tunable, Rapid-uptake, AminoPolymer Aerogel Sorbent for Direct Air Capture of CO₂

Palo Alto Research Center (Palo Alto, CA) plans to develop tunable, rapid-uptake, aminopolymer aerogel sorbent for DAC of CO₂, a novel solid sorbent for DAC. The chief objective of this effort is to develop a solid sorbent for DAC of CO₂ that will achieve equilibrium uptake capacity of 4 mmol/g, uptake rate of 0.15 mmol/g/min, and oxidation resistance that is 7 times greater than state-of-the-art polyethylenimine.

DOE Funding: $799,998; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $999,998

(10) Direct Air Capture Using Trapped Small Amines in Hierarchical Nanoporous Capsules on Porous Electrospun Hollow Fibers

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) plans to develop an innovative sorbent structure of trapped small amines in hierarchical nanoporous capsules embedded in porous electrospun fibers for DAC. The proposed sorbent structure is designed to address challenges associated with DAC of CO₂, including the dilute concentration of CO₂ in air, large land use, and high overall energy use and process cost.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $1,000,000

(11) Development of Advanced Solid Sorbents for Direct Air Capture

RTI International (Research Triangle Park, NC) plans to develop two different novel materials, metal organic frameworks (i.e., MOFs and physisorption) and phosphorous dendrimers (i.e., P-dendrimers and chemisorption) for DAC. The project team will focus on developing novel, robust, high capacity, regenerable CO₂adsorbents for DAC that substantially reduce the energy required for regeneration, are resistant to material degradation (i.e., dusting and spalling), and are highly selective to CO₂ over moisture and nitrogen.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,502; Total: $1,000,502

(12) Direct Air Capture Recovery of Energy for CCUS Partnership (DAC RECO2UP)

Southern States Energy Board (Peachtree Corners, GA) plans to scale up and integrate solid-amine CO₂adsorption-desorption contactor technology which has been proven in the laboratory. The team’s ultimate goal is to decrease the cost of DAC through the testing of existing DAC materials in integrated field units that produce a concentrated CO₂ stream of at least 95 percent purity.

DOE Funding: $2,500,000; Non-DOE Funding: $651,790; Total: $3,151,790

(13) Membrane Adsorbents Comprising Self-Assembled Inorganic Nanocages (SINCs) for Super-fast Direct Air Capture Enabled by Passive Cooling

SUNY (Amherst, NY), in collaboration with University at Buffalo and Trimeric Corporation, plans to develop highly porous membrane adsorbents comprising CO₂-philic polymers and self-assembled inorganic nanocages for rapid temperature swing adsorption using electricity-free solar heating and radiative cooling, enabling an economically viable approach for DAC. The resulting experimental data will be incorporated into the techno-economic analysis to assess the feasibility, economic opportunity, and impact on CO₂ emissions of this technology if implemented at scale.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $1,000,000

(14) Low Regeneration Temperature Sorbents for Direct Air Capture of CO₂

Susteon Inc. (Cary, NY) plans to develop amine-doped solid sorbents catalyzed by ionic liquids that have the potential to increase the CO₂ desorption rate by several orders of magnitude at desorption temperatures of 80-90°C. The anticipated benefits of this sorbent process are greater than 20 percent reduction in the energy required for sorbent regeneration, the potential to use waste heat for sorbent regeneration, increase in sorbent lifetime/stability due to lower regeneration temperature, and lower sorbent replacement cost due to the increased stability.

DOE Funding: $799,687; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $999,687

(15) Next Generation Fiber-Encapsulated Nanoscale Hybrid Materials for Direct Air Capture with Selective Water Rejection

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (New York, NY) plan to develop a tailored material in combination with state-of-the-art anhydrous nanofluid solvent and electrospinning technologies to form a hybrid coaxial-fiber system for DAC with selective rejection of water. The project team will investigate underlying mechanisms that impact sorption kinetics, thermodynamics, and mass transfer to gain an understanding that will enable tuning key parameters of encapsulated hybrid coaxial fiber for optimal operating conditions in DAC.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $1,000,000

(16) Gradient Amine Sorbents for Low Vacuum Swing CO₂ Capture at Ambient Temperature

The University of Akron (Akron, OH) in collaboration with Aspen Aerogels, Inc., plans to determine the cost-effectiveness of a low vacuum swing adsorption process for DAC. If successful, the development of the proposed technology could help alleviate the impact of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel usage on climate change. The proposed concept could also be further extended to the separation of acid gases and sulfur-containing gas molecules from process streams in chemical and natural gas industry.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,262; Total: $1,000,262

(17) Electrochemically-Driven Carbon Dioxide Separation

University of Delaware (Newark, DE) plans to develop an electrochemically driven CO₂separator (EDCS) using poly (aryl piperidinium) (PAP) ionomers. The ionomers will perform near-continuous CO₂separation from air under ambient conditions at a rate of 0.4 mol/m2-hr with <235 kJ/mol (1.49 MWh/t) cell electrical energy input and zero thermal energy input. The team will also perform extensive characterization of the kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport properties of CO₂, bicarbonate, carbonate, and hydroxide in PAP ionomers.

DOE Funding: $800,000; Non-DOE Funding: $200,000; Total: $1,000,000

(18) Development of Novel Materials for Direct Air Capture of CO₂

University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, KY) plans to develop an enhanced depolarized electro-membrane system. The overall process will be expected to extract CO₂ from ambient air, up-concentrate and regenerate the extracted CO₂, and simultaneously renew the capture solvent at greater than 30 percent reduced energy consumption and footprint compared to state-of-the-art DAC technologies.

DOE Funding: $699,509; Non-DOE Funding: $174,904; Total: $874,413

#28: S2E28: How many jobs will a direct air capture industry create?—w/ John Larsen of Rhodium Group (NORI Podcast)

Wyoming lauds US carbon capture study; utility skeptical -- Wyoming’s governor is promoting a Trump administration study that says capturing carbon dioxide emitted by four coal-fired power plants would be an economical way to curtail the pollution (ABC News/Associated Press)