An environmental control system includes an air conditioning subsystem and a contaminant removal subsystem downstream of the environment to be conditioned. The contaminant removal subsystem includes: a first gas-liquid contactor-separator; a second gas-liquid contactor-separator; and a dehumidifier disposed either upstream of the first gas-liquid contactor-separator or downstream of the second gas-liquid contactor-separator.

A solvent system for the removal of acid gases from mixed gas streams is provided. Also provided is a process for removing acid gases from mixed gas streams using the disclosed solvent systems. The solvent systems may be utilized within a gas processing system.

A system and method to both reduce interior levels of volatile organic compounds and carbon dioxide that is more energy efficient than increasing building ventilation rates. The system comprises a carbon dioxide scrubber that operates in a continuous manner, and optionally but preferably further comprises an air purifier.

An atmospheric water generation system comprises water vapor consolidation systems configured to increase the relative humidity of a controlled air stream prior to condensing water from the controlled air stream. The water vapor consolidation system comprises a fluid-desiccant flow system configured to decrease the temperature of the desiccant to encourage water vapor to be absorbed by the desiccant from an atmospheric air flow. The desiccant flow is then heated to encourage water vapor evaporation from the desiccant flow into a controlled air stream that circulates within the system. The humidity of the controlled air stream is thereby increased above the relative humidity of the atmospheric air to facilitate condensation of the water vapor into usable liquid water.

A gas-liquid contacting apparatus and method are described, in which at least one rotor assembly including packing is arranged in a contacting chamber containing at least one stator assembly including at least one heat exchanger arranged to thermally modulate the gas-liquid contacting so that each stator assembly is operatively arranged with each stator assembly to provide gas-liquid contacting at temperatures effective for mass exchange between the gas and liquid. The rotor and stator assemblies may be of annular shape, or may be of disk shape in a stacked array of rotor assemblies alternating with stator assemblies. Such apparatus and method are usefully employed for CO.sub.2 capture from CO.sub.2-containing flue gases such as combustion effluents from power generation plants.

A method of capturing CO.sub.2 and converting the captured CO.sub.2 into useful byproducts includes providing a material including a material matrix holding an ionic liquid, exposing the material to a source of thermal energy to capture CO.sub.2 within the material, removing the material from exposure to the source of thermal energy, and washing the material with a solution to convert the captured CO.sub.2 and wash the converted, captured CO.sub.2 from the material as filtrate. Materials and systems for capturing CO.sub.2 and converting the captured CO.sub.2 into useful byproducts are also provided.

The present invention addresses to a method that uses surface-active surfactants ionic liquids (ILs) with an affinity for water to capture CO.sub.2, especially ILs derived from surfactants, of low production cost, fluoride-free, causing a low environmental impact in its use and high yield of CO.sub.2 sorption. The CO.sub.2 sorption method consists of contacting a gas mixture with at least one of the described ILs, at the working temperature, pressure and partial pressure of CO.sub.2. The removal of CO.sub.2 is done by pressure reduction. ILs can be reused without loss of efficiency.

A contaminant removal system for removing a contaminant from an environment includes a gas separator, a scrubber-separator downstream of the gas separator, and a stripper-separator downstream of the scrubber-separator. The gas separator is configured to receive a cabin air stream from the environment and concentrate the contaminant from the cabin air stream to produce a concentrated cabin air stream. The cabin air stream includes the contaminant, and the concentrated cabin air stream has a higher concentration of the contaminant than the cabin air stream. The scrubber-separator is configured to absorb the contaminant from the concentrated cabin air stream into a liquid sorbent and discharge a clean air stream to the environment. The stripper-separator is configured to desorb the contaminant from the liquid sorbent into a contaminant stream.

A process for treatment of gas mixtures containing acid gas, for the removal of said acid gas from the gas mixtures. The process has (A) an absorption step performed on a gas mixture containing acid gas by means of a solvent system containing at least one liquid absorption solvent for removing from the gas mixture the acid gas contained therein and forming a lean gas mixture, from which at least part of the acid gas have been removed, and an enriched solvent containing the acid gas and (B) a regeneration step, in which the enriched solvent is subjected to a gas/liquid separation step by a flash process to be separated from the absorbed acid gas and to produce an acid gas flow and a regenerated solvent, which is recirculated to the absorption step. The solvent system contains at least one liquid absorption solvent selected from switchable ionic liquids.

A system configured to capture CO.sub.2 and able to be washed of the captured CO.sub.2 includes a material including an ionic liquid configured to capture CO.sub.2 in response to exposure to a gas comprising CO.sub.2 and to a thermal energy source and an aerogel holding the ionic liquid therein. The system may also include a washing solution configured to wash the captured CO.sub.2 from the material.