AIR EXTRACTION: A BRIDGE TO RENEWABLE ENERGY AND COMPETITION
FOR THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY

Friday, November 19, 2004

Room 825 SWM, 1:00 PM

Frank Zeman

Graduate Student

Earth & Environmental Engineering

Abstract

The combustion of fossil fuels provides the vast majority of the global energy supply. The necessary byproduct of this combustion is carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Accumulation of CO2 gas in the atmosphere has provoked concern regarding its effect on the global climate and spawned worldwide interest in the reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. The current philosophy is leaning towards providing zero emission fossil fuel plants that produce power and hydrogen. The CO2 is stored underground and the hydrogen fuels the transportation/residential sector. This solution is distant and may not mitigate all emissions. I will be presenting the process of air extraction, where CO2 is scrubbed from the atmosphere, as a bridging technology and competitor to this vision. Air extraction is a chemical looping process that uses a combination of existing and novel technologies to concentrate atmospheric CO2 from 375 ppm to several atmospheres. I will discuss the process,the scaling issues and the potential of air extraction.