DIRECT AIR CAPTURE DEVICE

Abstract

Separation station with a plurality of separation units for separating carbon dioxide and/or water vapour from ambient air, wherein each separation unit having at least one contiguous and sealing circumferential wall circumferentially enclosing at least one cavity, the at least one contiguous and sealing circumferential wall defining an upstream opening and an opposed downstream opening, the cavity containing at least one gas adsorption structure for adsorbing the at least one gaseous component, preferably under ambient pressure and/or temperature conditions The plurality of separation units is arranged in at least one essentially vertical collector wall structure, laterally enclosing one single common separation station cavity, and wherein to the upper side, the separation station cavity is covered and closed by at least one cover unit with at least one air propelling device.

Claims

1-15. (canceled)

16. A separation station with a plurality of stationary separation units for separating at least one gaseous component from a gas mixture containing that gaseous component, for separating carbon dioxide and/or water vapour from ambient air, wherein each separation unit comprises at least one contiguous and sealing circumferential wall circumferentially enclosing at least one cavity, said at least one contiguous and sealing circumferential wall defining an upstream opening and an opposed downstream opening, said cavity containing at least one gas adsorption structure for adsorbing said at least one gaseous component, under ambient pressure and/or temperature conditions, wherein said plurality of separation units is arranged in at least one essentially vertical collector wall structure, laterally enclosing one single common separation station cavity, and wherein to the upper side, said separation station cavity is covered and closed by at least one cover unit with at least one air propelling device, wherein the separation station takes the following structure: each collector wall structure comprises at least 4 separation units arranged in a regular array of vertical columns and horizontal rows, the separation units of each collector wall structure further comprise at least one pair of opposing sliding doors for sealing the upstream opening and the downstream opening, respectively, of at least one cavity and each pair of opposing sliding doors, to open the respective closed cavity, is shifted in a direction essentially parallel to the plane of the respective sliding door to uncover the upstream opening and the downstream opening, respectively, and to allow for flow-through of gas mixture through the cavity.

17. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein said vertical collector wall structure takes the form of a vertically oriented polygonal prism.

18. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein said vertical collector wall structure takes the form of a vertically oriented, regular polygonal prism having 3-8 essentially flat collector walls, and wherein at and/or between adjoining vertical edges of said collector walls vertical members are provided, acting as pillar stands for the separation station.

19. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein the separation station comprises at least 3 essentially flat horizontal collector walls, wherein each collector wall comprises at least 8 separation units arranged in a regular array of vertical columns and horizontal rows.

20. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein the cover unit comprises a plurality of air propelling devices in the form of fans, wherein each propelling device is fluidly connected with the common separation station cavity in that flow is permitted between the openings of all separation units, which openings are facing the common separation station cavity, and the air propelling devices.

21. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein the separation station comprises a control allowing the at least one air propelling device to be controlled in a synchronised manner.

22. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein each collector wall comprises only one common pair of arrays of sliding doors.

23. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein at least one or all cavities of the separation units contain at least one sorbent cassette which, as a self-supporting unit, can be taken out and/or inserted into a respective cavity.

24. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein to the lower side and facing the ground said separation station cavity is covered and closed by at least one bottom cover unit.

25. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein it is attached to or encompasses: at least one or a plurality of common evacuation units, and/or one or a plurality of common heating and/or steam supply unit, and/or one or a plurality of common collection units for the gaseous component, and/or one or a plurality of sets of louvres at the upstream side, in each case common for all cavities or for all cavities in one vertical collector wall structure.

26. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein at and/or between vertical edges of said collector wall structures vertical members are provided, acting as pillar stands for the separation station, wherein either said vertical members downwardly protrude beyond a lower horizontal edge of said collector wall structures such that below the vertical collector wall structures there is a free space to the ground, and between the vertical members, the lower horizontal edge of each of said collector walls and the ground, on which the separation station is located, there are contiguous sealing walls, preventing inflow of outside air into the single common separation station cavity from below the vertical collector walls, or wherein a lower horizontal edge of said collector wall structures is essentially aligned with the ground, on which the separation station is located, preventing inflow of outside air into the single common separation station cavity from below the vertical collector walls.

27. A method of operating a separation station according to claim 16 and containing at least one array of separation units, for separating gaseous carbon dioxide from a gas mixture, from at least one of ambient atmospheric air, flue gas and biogas, containing said gaseous carbon dioxide as well as further gases different from gaseous carbon dioxide, by cyclic adsorption/desorption using a sorbent material of said gas adsorption structure adsorbing said gaseous carbon dioxide in said separation units, wherein the method comprises at least the following sequential and in this sequence repeating steps (a)-(e): (a) contacting said gas mixture with the sorbent material to allow at least said gaseous carbon dioxide to adsorb on the sorbent material by flow-through through said separation unit essentially under ambient atmospheric pressure conditions and ambient atmospheric temperature conditions in an adsorption step; (b) isolating said sorbent material with adsorbed carbon dioxide in said separation unit from said flow-through; (c) inducing an increase of the temperature of the sorbent material, to a temperature between 6 and 110 C., starting the desorption of CO2; (d) extracting at least the desorbed gaseous carbon dioxide from the separation unit and separating gaseous carbon dioxide in or downstream of the separation unit; (e) bringing the sorbent material essentially to ambient atmospheric temperature conditions and ambient atmospheric pressure conditions; wherein during the whole cycle the at least one or the plurality of air propelling devices in said cover unit is operated so as to withdraw air in the common separation station cavity, and wherein, if so present, the at least one or the plurality of air propelling devices in said bottom cover unit is operated so as to withdraw and/or push air into the common separation station cavity.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the pair of sliding doors is positioned to seal one cavity of the array for steps (b)-(e) while the other cavities are open to flow through to the gas mixture in step (a), the sealed cavity is exposed to conditions so as to desorb and extract the gaseous component while the other cavities are driven by said propelling devices to adsorb the at least one gaseous component from the gas mixture, and once the desorption in the sealed cavity is terminated, the pair of sliding doors is shifted to a next cavity or array of cavities, namely the one in the array which has been exposed to gas mixture adsorption for the longest time span, to seal that next cavity or array of cavities, and then this next cavity or array of cavities is exposed to conditions in steps (b)-(e) so as to desorb and extract the gaseous component while the other cavities are driven by gas or air propelling devices in step (a) to adsorb the at least one gaseous component from the gas mixture, wherein that sequence of steps is continued analogously to seal and extract sequentially all the cavities in the array and to cyclically iterate that sequence of adsorption and desorption steps equal to the number of cavities in the array at least 100 times, or at least 1'000 times.

29. The method of using a separation station according to claim 16 for the separation of carbon dioxide and/or water vapor from ambient air.

30. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein said vertical collector wall structure takes the form of a vertically oriented, regular, polygonal prism, with 3-8 essentially flat collector walls.

31. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein at and/or between adjoining vertical edges of said collector wall structures vertical members are provided, acting as pillar stands for the separation station, wherein said vertical members downwardly protrude beyond a lower horizontal edge of said collector wall structures such that below the vertical collector walls there is a free space to the ground.

32. The separation station according to claim 31, wherein supply tubing and/or control wiring for the separation units and/or, if present, for controlling doors for opening and/or closing of the separation units, is at least partly located within or adjacent to said vertical members.

33. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein the separation station comprises in the range of 4-8 or 4-6 essentially flat horizontal collector walls, wherein each collector wall comprises at least 8, or in the range of 8-25 or 10-20 separation units arranged in a regular array of vertical columns and horizontal rows.

34. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein, adjoining vertical circumferential wall portions of adjoining separation units along the horizontal rows are formed as common joint walls, and wherein between adjoining separation units between the horizontal rows there is an interspace between horizontal circumferential wall portions of adjacent separation units, in which supply tubing and/or control wiring for the separation units and/or, if present, for controlling doors for opening and/or closing of the separation units, is located or wherein adjoining horizontal circumferential wall portions of adjoining separation units along the vertical columns are formed as common joint walls, and wherein between adjoining separation units between the vertical columns there is an interspace between vertical circumferential wall portions of adjacent separation units, in which supply tubing and/or control wiring for the separation units and/or, if present, for controlling doors for opening and/or closing of the separation units, is located.

35. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein the cover unit comprises a plurality of air propelling devices in the form of fans, wherein these air propelling devices are arranged in an array of at least 22 or of at least 33 air propelling devices, or at least 44, 55 or 66 air propelling devices.

36. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein each propelling device is fluidly connected with the common separation station cavity in that flow is permitted between the openings of all separation units, which openings are facing the common separation station cavity, and the air propelling devices.

37. The separation station according to claim 20, wherein the separation station comprises a control allowing the plurality of air propelling devices to be controlled in a synchronised manner, including to be started and/or shutdown simultaneously.

38. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein the separation station comprises a control allowing the at least one air propelling device to be controlled in a synchronised manner, and wherein the separation station for that control comprises at least one or a group of frequency converters to jointly control the at least one air propelling device.

39. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein each collector wall comprises only one common pair of arrays of sliding doors in the form of a pair of horizontal sliding door rows being shifted in a vertical direction between cycles of adsorption and desorption and to close and open rows of separation units, or in the form of a pair of vertical sliding door columns being shifted in a horizontal direction between cycles of adsorption and desorption and to close and open rows of separation units.

40. The separation station according to claim 16, wherein each collector wall comprises only one common pair of arrays of sliding doors in the form of a pair of horizontal sliding door rows being shifted in a vertical direction between cycles of adsorption and desorption and to close and open rows of separation units, wherein adjoining vertical circumferential wall portions of adjoining separation units along the horizontal rows are formed as common joint walls, and/or wherein between adjoining separation units between the horizontal rows there is an interspace between horizontal circumferential wall portions of adjacent separation units, in which supply tubing and/or control wiring for the separation units is located, or in the form of a pair of vertical sliding door columns being shifted in a horizontal direction between cycles of adsorption and desorption and to close and open rows of separation units, wherein adjoining horizontal circumferential wall portions of adjoining separation units along the vertical columns are formed as common joint walls, and/or wherein between adjoining separation units between the vertical columns there is an interspace between vertical circumferential wall portions of adjacent separation units, in which supply tubing and/or control wiring for the separation units is located.

41. The separation station according to claim 23, wherein said sorbent cassette comprises at least one sorbent monolith, sorbent sheet, sorbent coating, honeycomb or a sorbent cavity provided by a mesh or grid structure, the mesh width of which is smaller than the smallest particle size of particulate adsorber particles, wherein the mesh can be a wire grid, including a metal or polymer wire grid, or an aluminium or stainless steel metal wire grid, and/or wherein said sorbent cassette comprises at least one sorbent sheet, coating or sorbent cavity and particulate adsorber particles in such a sheet, coating or sorbent cavity are amine functionality carrying polymer-based or inorganic particles suitable and adapted for carbon dioxide capture and/or are at least partly inorganic, organic or active carbon based particles, functionalised with alkali carbonate or with amine functionality suitable and adapted for carbon dioxide capture and/or metal organic frameworks, and/or wherein said sorbent cassette comprises at least one sheet, coating or sorbent cavity, and particulate adsorber particles in such a sheet, coating or sorbent cavity have a particle size in the range of 0.01-5 mm or in the range of 0.5-2 mm and have the property of flowing without substantial mechanical attrition and the carrier structure of which is selected from the group of polymers, ceramics, organic solids, zeolites, metals, clays, capsules or hybrids thereof.

42. The separation station according to claim 24, wherein the bottom cover unit comprises one or a plurality of air propelling devices, in the form of fans, wherein these air propelling devices can be arranged in an array, including in an array of at least 22 or at least 33 air propelling devices, or at least 44, 55 or 66 air propelling devices, wherein each propelling device is fluidly connected with the common separation station cavity in that flow is permitted between the openings of all separation units facing the common separation station cavity and the air propelling devices, and/or wherein the separation station comprises a control allowing the plurality of air propelling devices in the bottom cover unit to be controlled in a synchronised manner between the air propelling devices in the bottom cover unit and/or synchronised with the air propelling devices in the cover unit, including to be started and/or shutdown simultaneously, wherein the separation station for that control can comprise at least one or a group of frequency converters to jointly control the air propelling devices said bottom cover unit and/or cover unit.

43. The method according to claim 27, wherein in the separation station in said array of separation units the sequential and in this sequence repeating steps are carried out in a synchronised manner, such that at least half of the separation units, or at least three quarters of the separation units, or at least three quarters or of the separation units are in the adsorption step and the respective remaining separation units are going through the other steps.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0094] Preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the following with reference to the drawings, which are for the purpose of illustrating the present preferred embodiments of the invention and not for the purpose of limiting the same. In the drawings,

[0095] FIGS. 1a) to 1d) show a separation station and parts thereof in different views, wherein in a) an isometric view is shown in an oblique viewing angle from the top, in b) the cover unit with fans, in c) a collector wall, and in d) a vertical central cut with schematic indication of the airflow;

[0096] FIGS. 2a) to 2e) show a separation station with vertically moving sliding doors and parts thereof in different views, wherein in a) an isometric view in an oblique viewing angle from the top, in b) a vertical cut with the sliding doors closing the upper collector row without sorbent cassettes, in c) a vertical cut with the sliding doors closing the upper collector row with sorbent cassettes, in d) a detailed cut illustrating the supply of the sorbent cavities and in e) a side view with the sliding doors closing the upper collector row;

[0097] FIGS. 3a) to 3d) show a separation station with horizontally moving sliding doors and parts thereof in different views, wherein in a) an isometric view in an oblique viewing angle from the top, in b) a vertical cut with the sliding doors closing the rightmost collector sections in the back wall and on the left side without sorbent cassettes, in c) a vertical cut like in b) but with sorbent cassettes, in d) a side view with the sliding doors closing the left most collector sections.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0098] FIGS. 1a) to 1d) show a separation station 1 in a schematic representation.

[0099] The separation station 1 comprises four identical modular vertically arranged collector walls 2, which at the edges are connected and carried by vertical members 3 which act as stand posts for the separation station 1. The members 3 have protruding parts 4 by way of which the collector walls 2 and more specifically the lower horizontal edges 38 thereof are distanced from the ground, forming flow-through areas 6 below the collector walls and a free space 5 below the upper part of the separation station 1. There can be bracing 7 to stabilise the whole structure.

[0100] In this case the free space 5 below the upper part of the separation station 1, so below the lower horizontal edge of the collector walls 2, is open for inflow of air. However to optimise the airflow through the collector walls 2, typically this free space 5 is covered by contiguous sealing walls, or the upper part of the separation station 1 may be covered by a horizontal contiguous sealing wall essentially at the level of the lower horizontal edge 38 of the collector walls 2. It is also possible to have a horizontal further collector wall 2 with sorbents closing the separation station cavity 21 to the bottom.

[0101] In these vertical members 3, tubing and/or supply and/or control lines can be located, and in particular the upper part of the vertical members 3 can be provided as grid structures 8. The collector walls 2 enclose one common separation station cavity 21, which to the top is covered by a cover unit 9 with an array of fans 10. In addition this cover unit 9 comprises a support structure 11, and baffle plates 12 and a cover plate 13 in which the fans 10 are mounted. Correspondingly the cover unit 9 essentially seals the common separation station cavity 21 to the top.

[0102] The upper wall 15 of the respective collector wall abuts with the cover unit 9, and the lateral walls 16 are adjoining the vertical members 3, typically the lateral walls have a width which corresponds to the width of the vertical member.

[0103] the common separation station cavity can be closed and sealed to the bottom, essentially at the height of the lower horizontal edge 38 of the walls 2, by a bottom cover plate (not illustrated)

[0104] In each collector wall 2 there is provided a two-dimensional array of 16 square or rectangular separation units 34. Each separation unit 34 has an upstream opening 35, which is facing the outside of the separation station, and a downstream opening 36, which is facing the separation station cavity 21. The separation units 34 are arranged in a regular array forming collector rows 17, specifically an uppermost collector row 17, followed by in a downwards direction and adjacent to an upper collector row 17, followed buy in a downwards direction and adjacent to a lower collector row 17, and terminated to the bottom by an adjacent lowermost collector row 17.

[0105] In the vertical direction these separation units form collector columns 23, specifically (see also FIGS. 2a) to 2e)) forming a respective left most collector section 23, followed to the right and adjacent to the left collector row 23, followed to the right and adjacent to the right collector row 23, and to finish the array with the right most collector row 23.

[0106] The airflow in such a separation station 1 is typically structured as illustrated in FIG. 1d), namely the fans 10 withdraw air from the separation station cavity 21 such that it is expelled in a vertical direction illustrated by arrow 20, and such that it is sucked into the separation station cavity 21 in a horizontal direction as illustrated by arrow 19.

[0107] On the upstream side the collector walls and/or the separation units may comprise sets of louvres 18, which can be adjustable to control the direction of airflow.

[0108] More specifically a further example of a separation station is illustrated in FIGS. 2a) to 2e). Reference numerals in this set of figures designate the same elements or equivalent elements as already discussed in the context of FIGS. 1a) to 1d). In this embodiment, there is provided one common horizontally extending sliding door 22 which at the same time covers one row of separation units 34 in one of the separation walls 2. There is provided a corresponding vertically moving sliding door on the outer side 22 and a vertically moving sliding door on the inner side 22, and those sliding doors are moving in synchrony and parallel to each other at the same height depending on the carbon dioxide capture cycle. In the illustration in FIG. 2a) the sliding door in the left front collector wall is in the lowermost position, i.e. covering the lowermost collector row 17, so this collector row or rather the collector units of that collector row are going through steps (b)-(e) as detailed above.

[0109] The collector units of the other rows of that collector wall 2 are going through adsorption according to step (a) as detailed above.

[0110] As illustrated in FIG. 2b), each of the collector units comprises a circumferential set of walls enclosing a sorbent cavity 24. As one can see on the right side of that figure, the sliding doors have a curved convex profile to allow for an increased available vacuum without large thermal mass of the sliding door structure.

[0111] As illustrated in FIG. 2c), in these cavities 24 there are located sorbent cassettes, which for maintenance are provided as separate self-standing structures or a set of separate self-standing structures to be put into these cavities 24.

[0112] The sorbent cassettes 25 may for example comprise individual horizontal or vertical parallel layers coated with carbon dioxide reversibly adsorbing materials or comprise particulate material in corresponding air permeable containers for carbon dioxide adsorption. Materials suitable and adapted for this purpose are in particular primary and/or secondary amine carrying polymer beads, which can be contained in corresponding mesh structures.

[0113] In this example, see also FIG. 2d), horizontally adjacent separation units 34 are directly adjacent and the circumferential wall elements which are adjacent formed by one single wall 31.

[0114] On the other hand vertically adjacent separation unit rows 17 are arranged at a distance leaving an interspace 37 between the rows 17, and in this interspace 37 between the lower horizontal separation wall of the upper sorbent cavity 29 and the upper horizontal separation wall 30 of the lower sorbent cavity there is room for horizontal tubing 26 for the individual separation units and for control of the individual separation units and/or the corresponding sliding doors. This tubing 26 in this way can be ideally connected to the tubing 14 in the vertical members. The tubing 26 is connected to the corresponding separation unit 34 by way of inlets/outlets 27 and corresponding controllable valves 28.

[0115] As one can see from FIG. 2e), the sliding doors 22 are mounted on vertically extending rails 32 which can be mounted on the vertical members 3 or at the lateral edges of the collector wall 2.

[0116] Corresponding motors or more generally drive means for the sliding doors 22 and 22 as well as the corresponding control means can also be located at the lateral edges of the collector wall or in or on the vertical members 3.

[0117] A third example of a corresponding separation station as illustrated in FIGS. 3a) to 3d). Again reference numerals in this set of figures designate the same elements or equivalent elements as already discussed in the context of FIGS. 1a) to 1d) and FIGS. 2a) to 2e). In this case there is no joint horizontally extending common sliding door 22, but there is vertical array of sliding doors 33. Again there is a horizontally moving common sliding door on the outer side 33 and a horizontally moving sliding door on the inner side 33, and they move in synchrony in the cycle. Again they can be provided as one single stiff structure so as to simplify the corresponding rail structure, which in this case is provided as air of horizontally arranged rails 32 at the respective upper and lower edge of the respective collector wall 2. But they can also be structured as individual doors, in this case necessitating four pairs of horizontally arranged rails.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

TABLE-US-00001 1 separation station 9 cover unit with fans 2 collector wall 10 fan 3 vertical member 11 support structure of 9 4 protruding part of 3 12 baffle plate of 9 5 free space below upper part 13 cover plate of 9 of 1 14 tubing/supply/control lines in 6 flow-through area between 4 3 7 bracing 15 upper wall of 2 8 upper part of 3, grid structure 16 lateral wall of 2 17 collector row wall of upper sorbent cavity 17 uppermost collector row 30 upper horizontal separation 17 upper collector row wall of lower sorbent cavity lower collector row 31 vertical separation walls 17 lowermost collector row between sorbent sections 18 louvres 32 rail for sliding door 19 essentially horizontal inflow 33 horizontally moving sliding of air door on the outer side 20 essentially vertical outflow of 33 horizontally moving sliding air door on the inner side 21 separation station cavity, 34 collector section, separation enclosed space of separation unit unit 35 upstream opening of 34 22 vertically moving sliding door 36 downstream opening of 34 on the outer side 37 interspace between rows 22 vertically moving sliding door 38 lower horizontal edge of on the inner side collector wall 23 collector column 23 left most collector row or section of uppermost collector row 23 left collector row or section of uppermost collector row 23 right collector row or section row or of uppermost collector row 23 rightmost collector row or section of uppermost ollector row 24 sorbent cavity 25 sorbent cassette in separation unit 26 horizontal tubing 27 inlet/outlet of 26 28 valve 29 lower horizontal separation