| CPC B01D 53/62 (2013.01) [B01D 53/0407 (2013.01); B01D 2257/504 (2013.01); B01D 2258/06 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

|
1. A method to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere using a modular open architecture Direct Air Capture (DAC) system, the method comprising:
a) adsorbing CO2 from ambient air by pulling or pushing a flow of ambient air through a sorbent 151 with one or more fans, wherein the sorbent 151 is housed within one or more sorbent modules 141, wherein the one or more sorbent modules 141 are modular sorbent support structures housed within a sorbent reactor 131, wherein two or more sorbent reactors 131 are housed within a capture module 121; and wherein two or more capture modules 121 are connected to a utilities module 240 to form a cluster 111;
b) stopping the flow of ambient air through the sorbent 151;
c) flowing a heated purge gas through the sorbent reactor 131 to heat the sorbent 151, desorb adsorbed CO2 from the sorbent 151, and sweep the desorbed CO2 out of the sorbent reactor 131;
d) passing the flow of purge gas containing desorbed CO2 to the utilities module 240, condensing out retained moisture, and passing the desorbed CO2 to a plant services unit 230 for further processing or storage;
e) cooling the sorbent 151 by purging with a cool stream of air or inert gas; and
f) restarting the adsorption step a).
|