AIR EXTRACTION

摘要

The rising atmospheric CO_2 levels and concerns regarding their potentially adverse climactic effects are spurring global scientific activity. Mitigating the majority of the anthropogenic CO_2 emissions will require a variety of solutions. This is due to the varied nature of the emissions, both in location and magnitude with the additional recognition that different problems require different solutions. The one constant is that the emissions are to the atmosphere and therefore any technology that can extract CO_2 directly from the atmosphere would be advantageous. Air extraction is such a technology which produces a stream of concentrated CO_2 ready for sequestration. Air extraction also enables CO_2 trading by capturing CO_2 anywhere, any time and from any emitter. It is a stand alone technology that can be mixed with other capture schemes allowing separate optimization of energy conversion as well as CO_2 capture and storage. It is well suited for; distributed and/or mobile sources, existing infrastructure ill-suited for retrofit, handling leakage from storage sites, challenging CO_2 transport scenarios and driving capture to or above 100%. Below we present the Na~+/Ca~(2+) process, which is one specific implementation. This process benefits from the use of existing technologies and natural sorbents.