Analysis of multi-channel membrane contactor with high packing density for direct air capture

[Geoengineering News]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376738825014127

Authors: Huiping Zhang, Yuchen Zhao, Lingfeng Dai, Tianshun Xu, Kaiyun Fu, Xianfu Chen, Minghui Qiu, Peng Xu, Yiqun Fan 

01 January 2026

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2025.125099

Highlights

•High packing density multi-channel membrane contactors were developed for DAC scale-up.

•The 37-channel membrane maximizes effective interfacial utilization and achieves a CO2 capture flux of 0.06 mol m−2 h−1.

•Scaled-up membrane contactor was able to operate continuously over 150 h with stable performance.

Abstract

Direct air capture (DAC) is constrained by the inherently low driving force for CO2 capture. To address this challenge, this study employs multi-channel ceramic membrane contactors as the highly efficient gas-liquid contacting device. Here, we systematically investigated the performance of 19,37,61-channel membrane configurations through a combination of experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Among the tested configurations, the 37-channel membrane exhibited superior DAC performance, attributed to its balanced flow distribution and optimal gas-liquid contact characteristics. And it achieved a stable capture performance with a CO2 absorption flux of 0.06 mol m−2 h−1. Further experiments demonstrated that the scaled-up module was able to operate continuously for 170 h with stable performance and ∼2.2 kg CO2 captured from ambient air. These results underscore the scalability and practical viability of multi-channel membrane contactors for modular DAC systems.

Source: ScienceDirect