SBIR Phase I: A transformative low-cost approach for Direct Air Capture of CO2 via repeated cycles of ambient weathering of metal oxides

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于开发一种高度可扩展的环境变化解决方案。虽然植树造林和土壤固存等自然解决方案很重要，但迫切需要可扩展的、低土地利用的、永久性的替代方案。拟议中的技术将使用一种称为“直接空气捕获”的过程来降低大气中的二氧化碳浓度，从而限制海平面上升、自然灾害、与气候有关的强迫移民和经济困境。与传统的直接空气捕获系统相比，拟议的项目将最大限度地减少强制空气对流带来的能源需求，在增强的风化过程中反复再利用矿物原料，从空气中捕获二氧化碳，并开发创新的方法，以超低成本整合工程部件。迄今为止还没有大规模的加速矿化作业，主要是因为其实施面临技术困难。将各种技术部件整合成一个有凝聚力的、经济的系统是该行业面临的主要挑战。该项目的目标是在工业规模的低控制环境中，在严格的经济约束下实现一致的碳化率，从而降低集成系统的风险。该过程将包括开发测试装置和开发平台，以运行持续测试，以及开发新的硬件组件，以进一步提高碳化率。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the development of a highly-scalable solution to environmental change. While natural solutions like afforestation and soil sequestration are important, there is an urgent need for scalable, low land use, permanent alternatives. The proposed technology will use a process called Direct Air Capture to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations, thereby limiting sea level rise, natural disasters, climate related forced migration, and economic distress. The proposed project will minimize energy requirements from forced air convection relative to traditional Direct Air Capture systems, repeatedly re-using mineral feedstocks in an enhanced weathering process to capture CO2 from the air, and developing innovative approaches to the integration of engineered components at ultra-low cost. No scaled accelerated mineralization operation has been demonstrated to date, largely because of the technical difficulties facing its implementation. The integration of various technical pieces into a cohesive, economical system is a principal challenge facing the industry. The goal of the project is to de-risk the integrated system by achieving consistent carbonation rates within tight economic constraints in a low-control environment at industrial scale. The process will include developing test fixtures and a development platform to run constant testing, as well as developing new hardware components to further enhance carbonation rates.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.