The University of Sheffield is to procure a direct air CO2 capture (DAC) capture system from Mission Zero Technologies (MZT).
MZT says its DAC process produces high-grade CO2 supplied continuously, on-demand, on-site and is entirely electrically powered. It says its electrochemical separation consumes 3-4x less energy than existing thermal regeneration approaches, at less than 800 kWh/tCO2 and it uses off-the-shelf components and existing, scaled and mature technologies such as cooling towers and electrochemical water purification.
In July 2022 Mission Zero Technologies won £3 million in funding from the government’s the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP). Phase 1 of the project saw the completion of the R&D work, FEED activities, and deployment planning exercise; Phase 2 will see this realised into a working pilot plant alongside partners Optimus and O.C.O Technology Ltd. The scaled demonstration runs from mid 2022 to 2025, the plant is expected to come online in the middle of 2023 and the captured CO₂ will eventually be used to fabricate ‘Manufactured LimeStone’, a building material.
The University of Sheffield says the £500,000 procurement, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund, will complement its existing research capabilities in low carbon power generation and applications in energy and CO2 intensive industries, and provide opportunities for the development of carbon capture and utilisation technologies and applications. It is envisaged that the new DAC CO2 capture system will provide a platform to aid product development and innovation, and systems integration across a wide range of research activities.
The university has set up a National Translational Energy Research Centre focusing on bioenergy, renewable energy, and CCUS technologies. As part of the equipment portfolio to broaden and support research and development activities the DAC plant will be used to separate CO2 from air. The captured CO2, along with hydrogen generated on-site from renewable resources, will be utilised in an on-site sustainable aviation fuel production plant.