11 ms·

this is a very detailed and thoughtful question! We have 2 or more chambers, we are balancing the number of chambers so that a chamber is always adsorbing whi

this is a very detailed and thoughtful question! We have 2 or more chambers, we are balancing the number of chambers so that a chamber is always adsorbing while the other one (or 2) is transitioning temperature or holding a hot cycle to regenerate. We adsorb at ambient temperature so cooling the previously heated device is not too much energy, mostly just a fan, but there is some available cool refrigerant from our dehumidifier/heat pump cycle that removes moisture from the exhaust to help quickly drop the chamber temperature. We can use the exhaust waste heat to start heating the bed that is going into the hot regen cycle, then we use the waste heat from our exhaust dehumidifier to get the bed the rest of the way to the target hot cycle temperature. Its hard to explain in text, but you can see that we get to use the hot and cold cycles from the refrigerant cycle to do work for us simultaneously and take advantage of the heat in the exhaust itself!

uranium 6y ago
Thanks, that's quite clear. What about the tradeoff vs. large stationary units on power plants? I know other folks are working on that as well; would love to know about how the economics work out vs. truck-sized units.
- paulgross 6y ago
  The great thing about truck-sized units is that they can be modular, so we can easily mass produce them. The challenge with stationary units for power plants is that each one has to be custom-designed from the ground up. Plus, you have to put in tons of capital up front for a power plant, whereas our units are very cheap to make. That's why we think mobile carbon capture is the more scalable approach.
  - uranium 6y ago
    That makes a lot of sense.
  - skybrian 6y ago
    It seems like integration with small generators could happen later, though? Perhaps concrete producers or other consumers of CO2 would buy them, and use or sell the electricity.
    - HardEric 6y ago
      integration with generators at the CO2 consumers site, cut out the shipping costs, that's an interesting thought experiment!

uranium 6y ago

Thanks, that's quite clear. What about the tradeoff vs. large stationary units on power plants? I know other folks are working on that as well; would love to know about how the economics work out vs. truck-sized units.

paulgross 6y ago
The great thing about truck-sized units is that they can be modular, so we can easily mass produce them. The challenge with stationary units for power plants is that each one has to be custom-designed from the ground up. Plus, you have to put in tons of capital up front for a power plant, whereas our units are very cheap to make. That's why we think mobile carbon capture is the more scalable approach.
- uranium 6y ago
  That makes a lot of sense.
- skybrian 6y ago
  It seems like integration with small generators could happen later, though? Perhaps concrete producers or other consumers of CO2 would buy them, and use or sell the electricity.
  - HardEric 6y ago
    integration with generators at the CO2 consumers site, cut out the shipping costs, that's an interesting thought experiment!