Simulating Building - Level Carbon Capture Systems

There are compelling studies that display the danger of metabolic CO 2 and fossil fuel CO 2 while entrapped in the buildings many people occupy. In fact, productivity amongst workers and students can be increased by minimizing CO 2 concentrations at building-level. Current direct air capture (DAC) systems are massive and have been developed to sequester carbon dioxide, created from the ignition of fossil fuels, directly from the air at 400 ppm. Simulation of building-level carbon capture devices requires retrofitting these DAC systems into commercial building Air Handling Units. Most if not all CO 2 capturing devices function with a sorbent element that bonds with the CO 2 as a fan guides it through the reaction chamber. An ideal sorbent is should be low costing and have low regeneration energy. This research aims to simulate various sorbent performances on the removal of carbon dioxide in commercial buildings using the U.S. Department of Energy reference buildings. Specifically, the research will reference a large office building, a medium office building, a primary school, and a secondary school for simulations. A feasibility analysis is needed to understand the cost and energy consumption of selected sorbents. Through careful analysis of the carbon dioxide properties, building circumstances, ventilation techniques, and various carbon dioxide capturing sorbents we can successfully model a DAC building. Among the four sorbents studied the zeolite 13x coupled with electric swing adsorption (ESA) proved to be the most efficient in terms of regeneration energy and costs. Although the promising capabilities, more experimental research is needed to justify the prominence of electric swing adsorption as a regenerative process.