A pathway to next-generation direct air capture using adsorbents

[Geoengineering News]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542435126002710

Authors: Yifei Xu, Qiyuan Li, Bingqiao Xie, Zixin Zhang et al.

21 July 2026

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2026.102587

Context & scale

Direct air capture (DAC) provides a path to regulate the atmospheric CO2 concentration and mitigate global warming. However, the scaling of DAC technology faces significant challenges in energy consumption and capture costs. Limited engineering experience and a lack of comprehensive design guidelines lead to significant knowledge gaps among researchers, engineers, and policymakers. This review identifies four critical engineering bottlenecks, summarizes cutting-edge solutions, and envisions future scenarios with matured DAC. The importance of contactor design and heat management for reducing energy consumption is highlighted, together with the necessity of system integration for improving techno-economic viability. Overall, this review seeks promising solutions and advocates blooming ideas to enhance practicability and scalability of adsorption DAC.

Summary

Adsorption-based direct air capture (DAC) has emerged as a pivotal negative-emission technology for achieving global net-zero targets. However, its large-scale deployment is critically hindered by substantial energy consumption and high costs. This review shifts the focus from adsorbent chemistry to the overarching engineering challenges of scaling. It provides a systematic examination of recent advancements across four critical domains: innovative contactor designs for efficient air handling with minimal pressure drop, advanced thermal management strategies to reduce regeneration energy, intelligent water management that transforms humidity from an operational challenge into a strategic opportunity, and synergistic system integration with sectors such as building ventilation and agriculture. Finally, we refine levelized profit as the ultimate indicator to probe the joint economic impacts from all bottlenecks and outline design paradigms to accelerate the transition of DAC from laboratory validation to global implementation.

Source: ScienceDirect