German DAC startup opens lab to develop ‘high quality’ carbon capture sorbents

GERMAN-BASED startup NeoCarbon has opened a chemical laboratory at its Berlin site to test out the use of its in-house sorbents, the fundamental material needed for direct air capture (DAC).

Solid sorbents are used in DAC for CO2 adsorption, where physical filters chemically bind to CO2 molecules in the atmosphere and release them into a concentrated stream that can be stored.

NeoCarbon’s five-person team plan to use the facility to develop, test, and demonstrate the use of sorbents under changing conditions, including atmospheric differences in temperature, humidity, CO2 concentration, and pressure.

Silvain Toromanoff, co-founder of NeoCarbon, said: “The new facility not only supports NeoCarbon's immediate research and development goals, but also advances the future of DAC in terms of scalability, efficiency and financeability.”

Adsorption technology

The most used sorbents for CO2 adsorption include amine-based, polymer-based, and metal-organic framework sorbents.

NeoCarbon says its lab has already tested more than 100 different types of solid and nanoporous sorbents, with particular interest in amine-based polymer sorbents.

The lab has been designed to scale up the production of “high-performance” sorbents, which the team describe as materials that are both energy efficient and have a long lifespan.

These factors can be difficult to develop when sorbents come up against challenges in atmospheric temperature and humidity.

A spokesperson for NeoCarbon said: “Very high temperatures above 50°C might have detrimental effects on the sorbent, as it deteriorates faster.”

They added: “Higher relative humidity in the air means we typically capture more water, which lowers our CO2 capture.

“However, the relationship is complex, and a certain amount of captured water lowers the energy required for the capture of CO2, making the overall cost per tonne removed decrease despite a lower absolute amount of CO2 captured. Overall, dry air is typically better, up to a point.”

NeoCarbon will use its advanced chemicals and surface characterisation tools, which include thermogravimetric analysers (TGA), to measure weight change and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), to “fine-tune” the surface properties that effect CO2 adhesion to sorbent particles.

The equipment can accommodate samples ranging from 1 g to 1 kg.

Using captured carbon

NeoCarbon also manufactures DAC reactors at its Berlin site and uses waste heat from existing infrastructure for its operations to reduce energy costs.

These reactors are modular and can be installed on heavy industry sites, with the company currently working with businesses in the vertical farming, cement, and methanol production industries.

By 2030, NeoCarbon aims to have removed 1m t/y of CO2 from the atmosphere.